
Book- 



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Published monthly by the 

New York State Education Department 

BPLLBTIN 36X DECEMBBR I»OS 

Department Bulletin 



No. I 
THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 

OF THE 

STATE OF NEW YORK 

WITH THE 
RULES OF PRACTICE RELATING TO APPEALS 

AND 

GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS RELATING TO SCHOOL 
ADMINISTRATION 

In force on Oct. i, 1905 



PAGE 

Unification act 1904 — 3 

Consolidated School law 6 

Rules Relating to Appeals 131 



PAGE 

General laws and special acts. . 139 
Index ao3 



ALBANY 

NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 
1905 



Giom-Ss-5000 



STATE OF NEW YORK \ "C? 

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT ^ ^^^ ^ 

Regents of the University >*^ 

With years when terms expire ' 

1913 Whitelaw Reid M.A. LL.D. Chancellor - - New York 

1906 St Clair McKelway M.A. L.H.D. LL.D. D.C.L. |; 

Vice Chancellor Brooklyn 

1908 Daniel Beach Ph.D. LL.D Watkins 

1914 Pliny T. Sexton LL.B. LL.D. ...... Palmyra 

1912 T. Guilford Smith M.A. C.E. LL.D Buffalo 

1907 William Nottingham M.A. Ph.D. LL.D. . . Syracuse 

1910 Charles A. Gardiner Ph.D. L.H.D. LL.D. D.C.L. New York 

1915 Charles S. Francis B.S Troy 

1911 Edward Lauterbach M.A. LL.D New York 

1909 Eugene A. Philbin LL.B. LL.D New York 

1916 LuciAN L. Shedden LL.B Plattsburg 

Commissioner of Education 

Andrew S. Draper LL.D. 

Assistant Commissioners 

Howard J. Rogers M.A. LL.D. First Assistant Commissioner 
Edward J. Goodwin Lit.D, L.H.D. Second Assistant Commissioner 
Augustus S. Downing M.A. Third Assistant Commissioner 

Secretary to the Commissioner 

Harlan H. Horner B.A. 

Director of Libraries and Home Education 

Melvil Dewey LL.D. 

Director of Science and State Museum 

John M. Clarke Ph.D. LL.D. 

Chiefs of Divisions 

Accounts, William Mason 
Attendance, James D. Sullivan 
Examinations, Charles F. Wheelock B.S. LL.D. 
Inspections, Frank H. Wood M.A. 
Law, Thomas E, Finegan M.A. 
Records, Charles E. Fitch L.H.D. 
Statistics, Hiram C. Case 
\ Visual Instruction, DeLancey M. Ellis 






/ 

MAR 5 1906 
New York State Education Department P. cT 0, 

Department Bulletin 

No. I 



THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 

OF THE 

STATE OF NEW YORK 

WITH THE 

RULES OF PRACTICE RELATING TO APPEALS 

AND 

GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS RELATING TO SCHOOL 
ADMINISTRATION 

In force on Oct. i, 1905 



UNIFICATION ACT 1904 

Chapter 40 
An act to provide that 'the University of the State of New York " shall be 
governed and its corporate powers exercised by 11 Regents, and to provide 
for their election; and to provide for a Department of Education and the 
election of a Commissioner of Education. 

Became a law Mar. 8, 1904, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present. 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 Government of University. On and after the first day of Government of 

A -1 1 ■ 1 • 1 1 1 /-A • • "^ University 

April, 1904, the corporation designated by the Constitution as 
"the University of the State of Nevv^ York" shall be governed 
and its corporate powers exercised by 11 Regents. The term of 
office of the Regents now in office, not selected as herein provided, 
shall cease and determine on said first day of April following the 
election of the 1 1 Regents hereinafter provided for. There shall 
be no "ex officio " members of the Board of Regents. 

§2 Election of Regents, Within 10 davs after the passage of Election of 
this act the Legislature shall proceed to the election of 1 1 Regents 
of the University of the State of New York, in the manner now 



4 i^EW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

prescribed by law for the election of a Regent. Such Regents 
shall be elected for the term of i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 
years respectively, from the first day of April, 1904. The Secretary 
of State shall issue to each of the persons so elected a certificate 
of election, in the same manner as certificates are now issued to 
elected members of the Board of Regents. Such Regents shall 
be selected from those who are now Regents of the University of 
the State of New York, and so far as may be, that one shall be 
chosen from each judicial district. The successors in office for a 
full term of the Regents thus elected shall in the same manner 
be elected by the Legislature in the second weBk of February in 
each year, to serve for a period of 1 1 years from the first day of 
April succeeding such election. If a vacancy in the Board of 
Regents shall occur in a judicial district, (that is, in the territory 
comprising the same as now constituted) from which there remains 
one or more representatives on said Board, and there shall at the 
same time be a district not represented on the Board by a resident 
thereof, such vacancy shall be filled by the election of a Regent 
from such unrepresented district. A vacancy in the ofifice of Regent 
for other cause than expiration of term of service, shall be filled 
for the unexpired term by an election at the session of the Legisla- 
ture immediately following such vacancy, unless the Legislature 
is in session when such vacancy occurs, in which case the vacancy 
shall be filled by such Legislature. 
Commissioner §3 Commissioner of Education. Within lo days after the 
passage of this act, the Legislature shall elect a Commissioner of 
Education in the same manner as members of the Board of Re- 
gents are now elected, who either may or may not be a resident 
of the State of New York. The Commissioner shall receive an 
annual salary of $7500, payable monthly, and shall also be paid 
$1500 in lieu and in full for his traveling and other expenses, also 
payable monthly. He shall enter upon the performance of the 
duties of his office on the first day of April, 1904. The Commissioner 
of Education first elected shall serve for the term of six years 
unless sooner removed for cause by the Board of Regents, and the 
Legislature shall fill any vacancy that may occur during such 
period of six years for the balance of the term, in the manner 
provided by section 3 of this act, and all successors in ofifice after 
such term of six years, shall serve during the pleasure of the Board 
of Regents, and all vacancies in the office of Commissioner of 
Education after such six years shall be filled by appointment by 
the Board of Regents 



oi Education 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 5 

§4 Powers of Commissioner. The office of Superintendent of p°^^s''? °.f 

" ^ ^ Commissioner 

Public Instruction and the office of Secretary of the Board of 
Regents shall be abolished from and after Ap. i, 1904, and the 
powers and duties of said offices shall be exercised and performed 
by the Commissioner of Education. All the powers and duties j 

of the Board of Regents in relation to the supervision of elementary i 

and secondary schools including all schools, except colleges, tech- 
nical and professional schools, are hereby devolved upon the 
Commissioner of Education. The said Commissioner of Educa- 
tion shall also act as the executive officer of the Board of Regents. 
He shall have power to create such departments as in his judg- - 
ment shall be necessary. He shall also have power to appoint 
deputies and heads of such departments, subject to the approval 
of the State Board of Regents. Such heads of departments shall 
appoint,' subject to approval by the Commissioner of Education, 
such subordinates in their respective departments as in their judg- 
ment shall be necessary. The Commissioner of Education, for the 
first year of his incumbency, subject to approval by the State 
Board of Regents, shall fix and determine the salaries of all depu- 
ties, appointees and employees within the appropriations made 
therefor and in accordance with existing laws. The Board of 
Regents of the University shall have power to establish such rules 
and regulations as are necessary to carry into effect the statutes 
of this State relating to education, and, subject to the provisions 
and limitations of this act, shall also possess all the powers now 
exercised by the present State Board of Regents. Nothing in 
this act shall be construed to affect the powers of the Board of 
Regents in .relation to colleges, universities, professional and tech- 
nical schools, libraries (other than public school libraries), museums, 
university extension courses and similar agencies. 

§5 Of appropriations. All appropriations of public money Appropriations 
made in support of the common school system, as heretofore 
administered by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
and all such appropriations in aid of secondary education hereto- 
fore apportioned and certified by the Regents of the University, 
shall after certification by the Commissioner of Education herein 
created, be paid by the State Treasurer on the warrant of the Comp- 
troller, and all employees and appointees in either the Department 
of the Regents or Departrnent of Public Instruction shall be eligi- 
ble for transfer and appointment to positions in the office of the 
Commissioner of Education herein created. 

§6 All acts and parts of acts so far as inconsistent with this act 
are hereby repealed. 

§7 This act shall take effect immediately. 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 

Chapter 556 as amended to the close of the session of igo^ 
Laws of i8g4, ch. j^6 

An act to revise, amend and consolidate the general acts relating to public 

instruction 

Became a law May 8, 1894, taking effect June 30, 1894 

TITLE I 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, his election, and general powers 

and duties 

TITLE II 

State and other school moneys, their apportionment and distribution; and 
trusts and gifts for the benefit of common schools 

Art. I Of the state school moneys, and their apportionment by the Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction, and payment to county and 
city treasurers 
II Of the apportionment of state schools moneys, and of other school 
moneys bv the school commissioners and their payment to the 
supervisors 
III Of trusts for the benefit of common schools, and of town school 
funds, fines, penalties and other moneys held or given for their 
benefit 

TITLE III 

Supervisors, disbursement of school moneys by, and some of their special 
powers and duties under this act 

TITLE IV 
Town clerks, their duties under this act 

TITLE V 
School commissioners, their election, powers and duties 

' TITLE VI 

School districts, formation, alteration and dissolution thereof 

TITLE VII 

Meetings in common school districts, the election of school district officers, 
and their powers and duties 

Art. I Of common school district meetings; who are voters, and their 
powers 
II Of district schoolhouses and sites 



CONSOLTDATFT) SCHOOL LAW ^ 

III Of the qualification, election and terms of office of district officers, 

and of vacancies in such offices 

IV Of the duties of district clerk and treasurer 
V Of pupils and teachers 

VI Of trustees, their powers and duties; and of school taxes and 
annual reports 
VII Of the assessment of district taxes, and the collection of such 
taxes; and of the collector, his powers, duties and liabilities 

TITLE VIII 

Union free schools, how established, who are voters at meetings and their 
powers ; election and terms of office of members of boards of education, 
and powers of such boards 

Art I Of the proceedings for the establishment of union free schools; 
powers of voters at meetings ; classification of terms of office 
and election of members of boards of education; certified 
copies of proceedings of meetings to be filed; board of edu- 
cation to elect a president and appoint a treasurer and collector 
II Of the qualifications of voters in union free school districts; and 
of meetings of such voters and their powers 

III Of annual and special meetings, and of election of members of 

boards of education and clerk in districts where the number 
of children exceeds three hundred 

IV Of the powers and duties of boards of education 

V Of the alteration of union free school districts; the increase or 

diminution of number of members of boards of education, and 
of dissolution of union free school districts 

TITLE IX 
Acquisition of schoolhouse sites 

TITLE X 

Teachers institutes 

TITLE XI 
Teachers training classes 

TITLE XII 
State scholarships in Cornell University 

TITLE XIII 
Common school and public libraries 

TITLE XIV 
Appeals to Superintendent of Public Instruction 



8 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

TITLE I TITLE XV 

Miscellaneous provisions 

Art. I Of loss of school moneys apportioned; of forfeiture by school 
officers by reason of neglect to sue for penalties; of costs in 
suits which might have been the subject of appeal to the Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction; of costs in suits, actions and 
proceedings other than appeals to the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction 
II Changes in textbooks 

III Care of code of public instruction 

IV Contracts ' between school districts and boards of education in 

cities 
V Memorandum of contracts with teachers 
VI Physiology and hygiene in the public schools 
VII Free instruction in drawing 
VIII Vocal music in the public schools 
IX Free kindergarten in cities and villages 
X Industrial training in the public schools 
XI Schools for colored children 
XII Orphan schools 
XIII Indian schools 

XIV Deaf and dumb and blind institutions 
XV Arbor day 
• XVI Miscellaneous 1 

TITLE XVI ; 

Compulsory education of children 

TITLE I 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, his election and general powers 

and duties 

Short title §1 Short title. This chapter shall be known as the "Consoli- 

dated School Law." 
state Super- i§2 The officc of State Superintendent of Public Instruction is 

mtendent, his '^ 

election and continued and the term of said office shall be three years, corn- 
term -' 

mencing on the seventh day of April. Such Superintendent shall 
be elected by joint ballot of the Senate and Assembly on the 
second Wednesday of February next preceding the expiration 
of the term of the then incumbent of said office, and on the second 
Wednesday of February next after the occurrence of any vacancy 

Office in in the office. The Superintendent's office shall be in the Capitol, 

and maintained at the expense of the state. His salary shall be 

Salary $5ooo a year, payable monthly, by the Treasurer, on the warrant 

of the Comptroller. 

Deputy Super- ^§3 He shall appoint a deputy, who shall receive an annual 

intendent i r * 

salary of I4000 payable monthl}^ by the Treasurer on the warrant 
of the Comptroller; and in case of a vacancy in the office of Super- 

^Superseded bylaws 1904, chapter 40. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 9 

TITLE 1 

intendent the Deputy may perform all the duties of the office until 
the day hereinbefore fixed for the commencement of the term of 
said office. In case the office of both Superintendent and Deputy Vacancies 
shall be vacant, the Governor shall appoint some person to per- 
form the duties of the office until the Superintendent shall be 
elected and his term of office commence as hereinbefore provided. 

^§4 He may appoint as many clerks and employees as he may cierks and 
deem necessary, but the compensation of such clerks and em- 
ployees shall not exceed in the aggregate the sum annually ap- 
propriated by the Legislature therefor, and shall be payable 
monthly' by the Treasurer, on the warrant of the Comptroller, 
and the certificate of the Superintendent. 

§5 The seal of the Superintendent, of which a description and Official seal 
impression are now on file in the office of the Secretar}^ of State, 
shall continue to be his official seal, and when necessary, may be 
renewed from time to time. Copies of all papers deposited or Copies of 

records 6tjC< 

filed in the Superintendent's office, and of all acts, orders and 
decisions made by him, and of the drafts or machine copies of 
his official letters, may be authenticated under the said seal, and 
when so authenticated, shall be evidence equally with and in like Evidence 
manner as the originals. 

^§6 The Superintendent shall be ex officio a Regent of the Uni- Duties 
versify of the State of New York, a trustee of Cornell University 
and of the New York State Asylum for Idiots. He shall also 
have general supervision over the state normal schools which Supervision 

1 1 11-1 1-1 11-11 °^ normal 

have been and which may hereafter be established; and he shall schools, etc. 
provide for the education of the Indian children of the state, as 
required by the provisions of this act. 

§7 The Superintendent may, in his discretion, appoint per- visitation 

. . ^ . ,, r 1 of common 

sons to Visit and examine all or any of the common schools in schools by 

, T 1 . , , appointees 

the county where such persons reside, and to report to him all 
such matters respecting their condition and management, and 
the means of improving them, as he shall prescribe; but no allow- 
ance or compensation shall be made to such visitors for their 
services or expenses. 

§8 So often as he can, consistently with his other duties, he Visitation 

■^ ' ot same by 

shall visit such of the common schools of the state as he shall see Superintendent 
fit, and inquire into their course of instruction, management and 
discipline, and advise and encourage the pupils, teachers and offi- 
cers thereof. 

§9 He shall submit to the Legislature an annual report containing :^"'i^a'r®p°'^ 

^Superseded by laws 1904, chapter 40. 

^Under laws of 1904, chapter 40, there are no e.x officio Regents, 



lO 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Teacher's 
certificate 



Examinations 
therefor 



License to 
teach 



[College 

graduate's 

certificates 



Indorsement 
jf diplomas 
±nr\ state cer- 
tificates 



Temporary 
licenses to 
teach 



Annulment 
of certificates, 
etc. 



1 A statement of the condition of the common schools of the 
state, and of all other schools and institutions under his super- 
vision, and subject to his visitation as Superintendent. 

2 Estimates and accounts of expenditures of the school moneys 
and a statement of the apportionment of school moneys made by 
him. 

3 All such matters relating to his office, and all such plans and 
suggestions for the improvement of the schools and the advance- 
ment of public instruction in the state, as he shall deem expedient. 

§io He may grant under his hand and seal of office a certifi- 
cate of qualification to teach, and may revoke the same. While 
unrevoked, such certificate shall be conclusive evidence that the 
person to whom it was granted is qualified by moral character, 
learning and ability, to teach any common school in the state. 
Such certificate may be granted by him only upon examination. 
He shall determine the manner in which such examination shall 
be conducted, and may designate proper persons to conduct the 
same, and report the result to him. He may also appoint times 
and places for holding such examinations, at least once in each 
year, and cause due notice thereof to be given. Every such cer- 
tificate so granted shall be deemed and considered a legal license 
and authority to teach in any of the public schools of this state, 
without further examination of the person to whom the same was 
granted, any provision of law in conflict with this provision to 
the contrary notwithstanding. He may also, in his discretion, issue 
a certificate without examination, to any graduate of a college or 
university who has had three years' experience as a teacher. Such 
last mentioned certificate shall be known as the "college graduate's 
certificate," and may be revoked at any time for cause. He may 
also, in his discretion, indorse a diploma issued by a state nor- 
mal school or a certificate issued by a state superintendent or state 
board of education in any other state, which indorsement shall 
confer upon the holder thereof the same privileges conferred by 
law upon the holders of diplomas or certificates issued by state nor- 
mal schools or by the State Superintendent in this state. He 
may also issue temporary licenses to teach, limited to any school 
commissioner district or school district, and for a period not ex- 
ceeding six months whenever, in his judgment, it may be necessary 
or expedient for him to do so. 

§11 Upon cause shown to his satisfaction, he may annul any 
certificate of qualification granted to a teacher by a school com- 
missioner, or declare any diploma issued by a state normal school 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW II 

TITLE 2 

ineffective and null as a qualification to teach a common school 
within this state, and he may reconsider and reverse his action 
in any such matter. 

§12 He shall prepare and keep in his office alphabetical lists of J^^^t^ot^ persons 
all persons who have received, or shall receive, certificates of quali- ^^^^^^'^'^ '^>- 
fication from himself, or diplomas of the state normal schools, with 
the dates thereof, and shall note thereon all annulments and rever- 
sals of such certificates and diplomas, with the dates and causes 
thereof, together with such other particulars as he may deem ex- 
pedient. 

§13 Whenever it shall be proved to his satisfaction that any ^^™°j^^^j^^ 
school commissioner or other school officer has been guilty of any ™i^^'°"^'" 
wilful violation or neglect of duty under this act, or any other act 
pertaining to common schools, or wilfully disobeying any decision, 
order or regulation of the Superintendent, the Superintendent 
may, by an order under his hand and seal, which order shall be 
recorded in his office, remove such school commissioner or other 
school officer from his office. Said Superintendent may also with- May withhold 

moneys fr-^-n 

hold any share of the public money of the state from any district district 
for wilfully disobeying any decision, order or regulation as afore- 
said, or when authorized by an}." provision of this act. 

§14 He shall prepare suitable registers, blanks, forms and regu- Blank forms, 
lations for making all reports and conducting all necessary busi-tion and distri- 
ness under this act, and shall cause the same, with such informa- 
tion and instructions as he shall deem conducive to the proper 
organization and government of the common schools and the due 
execution of their duties by school officers, to be transmitted to 
the officers and persons intrusted with the execution of the same. 

§1:5 The Superintendent may administer oaths and take affi- Oaths and 

^ _^ \ ■' affidavits 

davits concerning any matter relating to the schools. 

TITLE II 

State and other school moneys, their apportionment and distribution, and 
of trusts and gifts for the benefit of common schools 

ARTICLE I 1 
0/ ike state school moneys and their apportionment by the Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, and payment to county and city 
treasurers. 

§3 The Comptroller may withhold the payment of any moneys Comptroller^^ 
to which any county may be entitled from the appropriation of payments 
the incomes of the school fund and the United States deposit 



'Chapter 390, law? of 1904, repeals sections i and 2 of this article. 



12 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Temporary 
loans for 
deficiencies 



State school 

moneys 

defined 



Annual appor 
tionment 



Applied to 

teachers' 

wages 

For pay of 
school com- 
missioners 



Cities, villages 
and districts 
employing su- 
perintendents 



Enumeration 
of inhabitants 
in the first 
instance 



fund for the support of common schools, until satisfactory evi- 
dence shall be furnished to him that all moneys required by law 
to be raised by taxation upon such county, for the support of 
schools throughout the state, have been collected and paid or ac- 
counted for to the State Treasurer; and whenever, after the first 
day of March in any year, in consequence of the failure of any 
county to pay such moneys on or before that day there shall be 
a deficiency of moneys in the treasury applicable to the payment 
of school moneys, to which any other county may be entitled, 
the Treasurer and Superintendent of Public Instruction are hereby 
authorized to make a temporary loan of the amount so deficient, 
and such loan, and the interest thereon at the rate of 12 per cent 
per annum, until payment shall be made to the treasury, shall be 
a charge upon the county in default, and shall be added to the 
amount of state tax, and levied upon such co\mty by the board 
of supervisors thereof at the next ensuing assessment, and shall 
be paid into the treasury in the same manner as other taxes. 

§4 The moneys raised by the state tax or borrowed as afore- 
said to supply a deficiency thereof, and such portion of the in- 
come of the United States deposit fund as shall be appropriated, 
and the income of the common school fund, when the same are 
appropriated to the support of common schools, constitute the 
-state school moneys, and shall be divided and apportioned by the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, on or before the 20th day 
of January in each year as hereinafter provided; and all moneys 
so apportioned, except the library moneys, shall be applied ex- 
clusively to the payment of teachers' wages. 

'§5 He shall apportion and set apart from the free school fund 
appropriated therefor the amounts required to pay the annual 
salaries of the school commissioners elected or elective under this 
act, to be drawn out of the treasury and paid to the several com- 
missioners as hereinafter provided. Said Superintendent shall 
make no allotment to any city or district for the expense of a 
superintendent unless satisfied that such city, village or district 
employs a competent person as superintendent whose time is 
exclusively devoted to the general supervision of the public schools 
of said city, village or district; nor shall he make any allotment 
to any district in the first instance without first causing an enumer- 
ation of the inhabitants thereof to be made, which shall show the 
population thereof to be at least 5000, the expense of which 
enumeration, as certified by said State Superintendent, shall be 



lAs amended by chapter 316, laivs of 1902. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 1 3 

TITLE 2 

paid by the district in whose interest it is made. He shall then Library 
set apart, from the income of the United States deposit fund, for™°"^^^ 
and as library moneys, such sums as the Legislature shall appro- 
priate for that purpose. After deducting the said amounts he Supervision 
shall divide and apportion the remainder of the state school moneys 
as hereinafter specified. To each city $800. To each village which 
has a population of 5000 as shown by the last state census, or 
federal or village enumeration, and which employs a superintend- 
ent of schools, $800. To each union school district which has a 
population of 5000, and which employs a superintendent of schools, 
$800. An appropriation under either of the first three subdivi- 
sions hereof is known as the supervision quota. He shall set apart p^ti'^gent 
for a contingent fund not more than $10,000. 
^§6 From the remainder he shall apportion; 

1 To each district having an assessed valuation of $40,000 orApportion- 

" ment of dis- 

less, as appears by the report of the trustees upon which such t"ct quotas 
apportionment is based, and to each Indian reservation for each 
teacher employed therein for a like period, $150; and to each of 
the remaining districts, and to each of the cities in the state, $125. 
The apportionment provided for by this subdivision shall be known 
as a district quota. 

2 To each such district or city for each additional qualified Apportion- 
teacher and his successors by whom the common school has been teacher's 
taught, during the period of time required by the school law, $100; 

but pupils employed as monitors or otherwise, shall not be deemed 
teachers. The apportionment provided for by this subdivision 
shall be known as a teachers quota. 

3 The remainder to the several counties according to their Apportion- 

,.1 . . .,.,..-,. , ment to 

respective population by a ratio to be ascertained by dividing such counties 
remainder by the population of the state as shown by the last 
federal census or state enumeration ; except that for the purpose 
of this apportionment the city of New York shall be considered 
one county. But as to counties in which are situated cities whose 
boundary lines are coterminous with the school district lines com- 
prising said city, he shall apportion to such city the part to which 
it shall so appear entitled, and to the residue of the county the 
part to which it shall appear to be so entitled. 

To entitle a district to a district quota, a qualified teacher or Basis of 

1 • r 1 district quota 

successive qualified teacher must have actually taught the com- 
mon school of the district for at least 160 days of school, inclusive 
of legal holidays that may occur during the term of said schools 

lAs amended by chapter 316, laws of 1902, and chapter 598, laws of 1903, 



14 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Reclamation of 
moneys appro- 
priated 



and exclusive of Saturdays. No Saturday shall be counted as 
part of said i6o days of school and no school shall be in session 
on a l^al holiday, except Washington's birthday and Lincoln's 
birthday. A deficiency not exceeding three weeks during any 
school year caused by a teacher's attendance upon a teachers 
institute within a coimty shall be excused by the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction. 

§7 Having so apportioned and distributed the said district quota 
as specified in section 6 of this act, the Superintendent shall appor- 
tion the remainder of said state school moneys, and also the library 
moneys separately, among the counties of the state, according to 
their respective population, excluding Indians residing on their 
reservation, as the same shall appear from the last preceding state 
or United States census; but as to counties in which are situated 
cities having special school acts, he shall apportion to each city 
the part to which it shall so appear entitled, and to the residue of 
the county the part to which it shall appear to be so entitled. If 
the census according to which the apportionment shall be made 
does not show the sum of the population of any county or city, the 
Superintendent shall, by the best evidence he can procure, ascer- 
tain and determine the population of such county or city at the 
time the census was taken, and make his apportionment accordingly. 

§8 Whenever any school district shall have been excluded from 
participation in any apportionment made by the Superintendent, 
or by the school commissioners, by reason of its having omitted to 
make any report required by law, or to comply with any other pro- 
vision of law, or with any rule or regulation made by the Super- 
intendent under the authority of law, and it shall be shown to the 
Superintendent that such omission was accidental or excusable, 
he may, upon the application of such district^ make to it an equitable 
allowance; and if the apportionment was made by himself, cause it 
to be paid out of the contingent fund; and, if the apportionment 
was made by the commissioners, direct them to apportion such 
allowance to it, at their next annual apportionment, in addition to 
any apportionment to which it may then be entitled. And the 
Superintendent may, in his discretion, upon the recommendation 
of the school commissioner having jurisdiction over the district in 
default, direct that the money so equitably apportioned shall be 
paid in satisfaction of teacher's wages earned by a teacher not 
qualified in accordance with the provisions of the law as herein- 
after set forth. 

§9 If money to which it is not entitled, or a larger sum than it 
is entitled to, shall be apportioned to any county, or part of a 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 1 5 

TITLE 2 

county, or school district, and it shall not have been so distributed 
or apportioned among the districts, or expended, as to make it 
impracticable so to do, the Superintendent may reclaim such 
money or excess, by directing any officer in whose hands it may be 
to pay it into the state treasury, to the credit of the free school 
fund; and the State Treasurer's receipt, countersigned by the 
Superintendent, shall be his only voucher; but if it be impracticable 
so to reclaim such money or excess, then the Superintendent shall Deductions 

1 1 ■ " 1 • !• 1 /■ from next 

deduct it trom the portions of such county, part of a county or dis- apportionment 

trict in his next annual apportionment, and distribute the sum 

thus deducted equitably among the counties and parts of counties, 

or among the school districts in the state entitled to participate in 

such apportionment, according to the basis of apportionment in 

which such excess occurred. 

§io If a less sum than it is entitled to shall have been apr or- Suppiemen- 

. tary appor- 

tioned by the Superintendent to any county, part of a county or tionment for 

... deficiencies 

school district, the Superintendent may make a supplementary 
apportionment to it, of such a sum as shall make up the deficiency, 
and the same shall be paid out of the contingent fund, if sufficient, 
and if not, then the Superintendent shall make up such deficiency 
in his next annual apportionment. 

§ 1 1 As soon as possible after the making of any annual or general Certification 
apportionment, the Superintendent shall certify it to the county ment 
clerk, county treasurer, school commissioners and city treasurer 
or chamberlain, in every county in the state; and if it be a supple- 
mental apportionment, then to the county clerk, county treasurer 
and school commissioners of the county in which the schoolhouse 
of the district concerned is situate. 

^§12 The moneys so annually apportioned by the Superintend- '^o"eys, pay- 
ent, shall be payable between the ist dav of April and thefi^tdayof 

' ■ ^ -' •' ^ April and isth 

15th day of May next after the apportionment, to the treasurers of ^^^y 
of the several counties and the chamberlain of the city of Ne"v/ 
York, respectively; and the said treasurers and the chamberlain 
shall apply for and receive the same as soon as payable. 

ARTICLE 2 

i 
Of the apportionment of the state school moneys, and of other school j 

moneys hy the school commissioners, and their payment to the 

supervisors 

§13 The school commissioner, or commissioners of each county , Annual appor- 

shall proceed, at the county seat, on the third Tuesday of March, commissioners 



lAs amended by section i, chapter 166, laws of 1904. 



i6 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Library 
moneys 



State moneys 
to be set apart 



Return of 

unexpended 

moneys 



Returns from 
treasurer of 
fines and 
penalties 



How appor- 
tioned 



Library 
moneys 



Basis of appor- 
tionment 



Apportion- 
ment accord- 
ing to school 
attendance 



in each year, to ascertain, apportion and divide the state and other 
school moneys as follows: 

1 They shall set apart any library moneys apportioned by the 
Superintendent. 

2 From the other moneys apportioned to the county, they shall 
set apart and credit to each school district the amount apportioned 
to it by the State Superintendent, and to every district which did 
not participate in the apportionment of the previous year, and 
which the Superintendent shall have excused, such equitable sum 
as he shall have allowed to it. 

3 They shall procure from the treasurer of the county a tran- 
script of the returns of the supervisors hereinafter required, show- 
ing the unexpended moneys in their hands applicable to the pay- 
ment of teachers' wages and to library purposes, and shall add the 
whole sum of such moneys to the balance of the state moneys to 
be apportioned for teachers' wages. The amounts in each super- 
visor's hands shall be charged as a partial payment of the sums 
apportioned to the town for library moneys and teachers' wages, 
respectively. 

4 They shall procure from the county treasurer a full list and 
statement of all payments to him of moneys for or on account of 
fines and penalties, or accruing from any other source, for the 
benefit of schools and of the town or towns, district or districts for 
whose benefit the same were received. Such of said moneys as 
belong to a particular district, they shall set apart and credit to 
it; and such as belong to the schools of a town, they shall set apart 
and credit to the schools in that town, and shall apportion them 
together with such as belong to the schools of the county as here- 
inafter provided for the payment of teachers' wages. 

5 They shall apportion library moneys to the school districts, 
and parts of school districts, joint with parts in any city or in any 
adjoining county, which shall be entitled to participate therein, 
as follows : To each of said districts an amount equal to that which 
shall have been raised in said district for library purposes, either 
by tax or otherwise, and if the aggregate amount so raised in the 
districts within the county shall exceed the sum apportioned to 
the county, the said districts, respectively, shall be entitled to 
participate in such apportionment pro rata to the total amount 
apportioned to the county. 

*6 They shall apportion all of such remaining unapportioned 
moneys in the like manner and upon the same basis among such 

lAs amended by section 2, chapter 264, laws of 1896.. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW I7 

TITLE 2 

school districts and parts of districts in proportion to the aggre- 
gate number of days of attendance of the pupils resident therein, 
between the ages of 5 and 18 years, at their respective schools 
during the last preceding school year, and also such children 
residing therein over 4 years of age who shall have attended any 
free kindergarten school legally established. The aggregate Attendance, 
number of days in attendance of the pupils is to be ascertained tamed 
from the records thereof, kept by the teachers as hereinafter 
prescribed, by adding together the whole number of days' attend- 
ance of each and every pupil in the district, or part of a district. 

7 They shall then set apart the money so set apart and appor- Moneys set 
portioned to each district, the schoolhouse of which is therein ; districts 
and to each part of a joint district therein the schoolhouse of 
which is located in a city or in a town in an adjacent county. 

8 They shall sign, in duplicate, a certificate, showing the amounts Certificate 

,1 111-,.. -, of apportion- 

apportioned and set apart to each school district and part of ament 
district, and the towns in which they are situated, and shall desig- 
nate therein the source from which each item was derived; and 
shall forthwith deliver one of said duplicates to the treasurer of 
the county and transmit the other to the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. 

9 They shall certify to the supervisor of each town the amount Certificate to 

. supervisor 

of school moneys so apportioned to his town, and the portions 
thereof to be paid by him for library purposes and for teachers' 
wages, to each such distinct district and part of a district. 

§14 If, in their apportionment, through any error of the com- Correction of 

. . 1111 • • 1 erroneous ap- 

missioners, any district shall have apportioned to it a larger or portionments 
a less share of the moneys than it is entitled to receive, the com- 
missioners may, in their next annual apportionment, with the 
approval of the Superintendent, correct the error by equitably 
adding to of deducting from the share of such district. 

§15 No district or part of a district shall be entitled to any Districts 
portion of such school moneys on such apportionment unless the TntitieTto 
report of the trustees for the preceding school year shall show'"""^^^ 
that a common school was supported in the district and taught 
by a qualified teacher for such a term of time as would, under 
section 6 of this title, entitle it to a distributive share under the 
apportionment of the Superintendent. 

' §16 On receiving the certificate of the conimissioners, each Filing of 
supervisor shall forthwith make a copy thereof for his own use, 
and deposit the original in the office of the clerk of his town; and Payments 
the moneys so apportioned to his town shall be paid to him im- supervisor 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Supervisor's 
bond 



Bond of 



mediately on his compliance with the requirements of the fol- 
lowing section, but not before. 

§17 Immediately on receiving the commissioners' certificate of 
apportionment, the county treasurer shall require of each super- 
visor, and each supervisor shall give to the treasurer, in behalf of 
the town, his bond, with two or more sufficient sureties, approved 
by the treasurer, in the penalty of at least double the amount 
of the school moneys set apart or apportioned to the town, and 
of any such moneys unaccounted for by his predecessors, con- 
ditioned for the faithful disbursement, safekeeping and account- 
ing for such moneys, and of all other school moneys that may 
come into his hands from any other source. If the condition 
shall be broken the county treasurer shall sue the bond in his 
own name, in behalf of the town, and the money recovered shall 
be paid over to the successor of the supervisor in default, such 
successor having first given security as aforesaid. Whenever 
to mrvlcancy the office of a supervisor shall become vacant, by reason of the 
expiration of his term of service or otherwise, the county treas- 
urer shall require the person elected or appointed to fill such 
vacancy to execute a bond, with two or more sureties, to be ap- 
proved by the treasurer, in the penalty of at least double the sum 
of the school moneys remaining in the hands of the old super- 
visor, when the office became vacant, conditioned for the faith- 
ful disbursement and safe-keeping of and accounting for such 
moneys. But the execution of this bond shall not relieve the 
supervisor from the duty of executing the bond first above 
mentioned. 

§18 The refusal of a supervisor to give such security shall be 
a misdemeanor, and any fine imposed on his conviction thereof 
shall be for the benefit of the common schools of the town. Upon 
such refusal, the moneys so set apart and apportioned to the 
town shall be paid to and disbursed by some other officer or per- 
son to be designated by the county judge, under such regulations 
and with such safeguards as he may prescribe, and the reason- 
able compensation of such officer or person, to be adjusted by 
the board of supervisors, shall be a town charge. 



Refusal to 
give security 



Moneys, how 

disbursed 

thereupon 



Estates in 
trust for 
common 
schools 



ARTICLE 3 

Of trusts for the benefit of common schools, and of town school funds, 
fines, penalties and other moneys held or given for their benefit. 
§19 Real and personal estate may be granted, conveyed, 
devised, bequeathed and given in trust and in perpetuity or other- 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW IQ 

TITLE 2 

wise, to the state, or to the Superintendent of PubHc Instruction, 
for the support or benefit of the common sch®ols, within the state, 
or within any part or portion of it, or of any particular common 
school or schools within it; and to any county, or the school 
commissioner or commissioners of any county, or to any city 
or any board of officers thereof, or to any school commissioner 
district or its commissioner, or to any town, or supervisor of a 
town, or to any school district or its trustee or trustees, for the 
support and benefit of common schools within such county, city, 
school commissioner district, town or school district, or within 
any part or portion thereof respectively, or for the support and 
benefit of any particular common school or schools therein. No 
such grant, conveyance, devise or bequest shall be held void for. 
the want of a named or competent trustee or donee, but where Trusts not 

invalid in 

no trustee or donee, or an incompetent one is named, the title and certain cases 
trust shall vest in the people of the state, subject to its acceptance 
by the Legislature, but such acceptance shall be presumed. 

§20 The Legislature may control and regulate the execution of Execution 
all such trusts; and the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall 
supervise and advise the trustees, and hold them to a regular a-c- Supervision 
counting for the trust property and its income and interest aftendent 
such times, in such forms, and with such authentications, as he 
shall, from time to time, prescribe. 

§21 The common council of every city, the board of super- oncers and 
visors of every county, the trustees of every village, the super- report trusts 
visor of every town, the trustee or trustees of every school dis- 
trict, and every other officer or person who shall be thereto re- 
quired by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, shall report 
to him whether any, and if any, what trusts are held by them 
respectively, or by any other body, officer or person to their informa- 
tion or belief for school purposes, and shall transmit, therewith, 
an authenticated copy of every will, conveyance, instrument or 
paper embodying or creating the trust; and shall, in like man- 
ner, forthwith report to him the creation and terms of every such 
trust subsequently created. 

§22 Every supervisor of a town shall report to the Superin- Reports ^as^^ 
tendent whether there be, within the town, any gospel or school school lots by 

'■lor supervisor 

lot, and, if any, shall describe the same, and state to what use, 
if any, it is put by the town; and whether it be leased, and, if so, 
to whom, for what term and upon what rents; and whether the 
town holds or is entitled to any lands, moneys or securities aris- 
ing from any sale of such gospel or school lot, and the investment 



20 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Reports as 
to moneys ic 
hands of over- 
seers of poor 



Superintend- 
ent to report 
to Legislature 



May require 
reports made 



Pines and 
penalties 



Apportion- 
ment thereof 



Reports of 
district attor- 
neys, as to 
fines, etc. 



Payment of 
collections to 
treasurer 



Fines and 
penalties, to 
whom paid 



of the proceeds thereof, or of the rents and income of such lots 
and investments, and shall report a full statement and account of 
such lands, moneys and securities. 

§23 Every supervisor of a town shall in like manner report to 
the Superintendent whether the town has a common school fund 
originated under the "Act relative to moneys in the hands of 
overseers of the poor," passed April 27, 1829, and, if it have, the 
full particulars thereof, and of its investment, income and appli- 
cation, in such form as the Superintendent may prescribe. 

§24 In respect to the property and funds in the last two sec- 
tions mentioned, the Superintendent shall include in his annual 
report a statement and account thereof. And, to these ends, he 
is authorized, at any time and from time to time, to require from 
the supervisor, board of town auditors, or any officer of a town, 
a report as to any fact, or any information or account, he may 
deem necessary or desirable. 

§25 Whenever, by any statute, a penalty or fine is imposed for 
the benefit of common schools, and not expressly of the com- 
mon schools of a town or school district, it shall be taken to be 
for the benefit of the common schools of the county within which 
the conviction is had; and the fine or penalty, when paid or col- 
lected, shall be paid forthwith into the county treasury, and the 
treasurer shall credit the same as school moneys of the county, 
unless the county comprise a city having a special school act, in 
which case he shall report it to the Superintendent, who shall ap- 
portion it upon the basis of population by the last census, between 
the city and the residue of the county, and the portion belonging 
to the city shall be paid into its treasury. 

§26 Every district attorney shall report, annually, to the board 
of supervisors, all such fines and penalties imposed in any prose- 
cution conducted by him during the previous year ; and all moneys 
collected or received by him or by the sheriff, or any other officer, 
for or on account of such fines or penalties, shall be immediately 
paid into the county treasury, and the receipt of the county treas- 
urer shall be a sufficient and the only voucher for such money. 

§27 Whenever a fine or penalty is inflicted or imposed for the 
benefit of the common schools of a town or school district^ 
the magistrate, constable or other officer collecting or receiving the 
same shall forthwith pay the same to the county treasurer of the 
county in which the schoolhouse is located, who shall credit 
the same to the town or district for whose benefit it is collected. 
If the fine or penalty be inflicted or imposed for the benefit of the 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 21 

TITLE 3 

common schools of a city having a special school act, or of any 
part or district of a city, it shall be paid into the city treasury. 

§28 Whenever, by this or any other act, a penalty or fine is Penalties and 

I 1 - ^ . . __ fines in joint 

imposed upon any school district officer for a violation or omis- districts 
sion of official duty, or upon any person for any act or omission 
within a school district, or touching property^ or the peace and 
good order of the district, and such penalty or fine is declared to 
be for, or for the use or benefit of the common schools of the town 
or of the county, and such school district lies in two or more towns 
or counties, the town or county intended by the act shall be taken 
to be the one in which the schoolhouse,or the schoolhouse longest 
owned or held by the district, is at the time of such violation, act 
or omission. 

TITLE III 

Supervisors; disbursement of school moneys by, and some ot their special 
powers and duties under this act 

§1 The several supervisors continue vested with the powers and Trustees of 

^ gospel and 

charged with the duties formerly vested in and charged upon the school lots 
trustees of the gospel and school lots, and transferred to and im- 
posed upon town superintendents of common schools by chapter 
186 of the laws of 1846. 

§2 The several supervisors continue vested with the powers andF°^^^^-'' """^^J" 

'■ former acts 

charged with the duties conferred and imposed upon the commis- 
sioners of common schools by the act of 1829 (chapter 287), en- 
titled "An act relative to moneys in the hands of overseers of the 
poor." 

§3 On the first Tuesday of March in each year, each supervisor ^,"'^^^' ""^^v™ 
shall make a return in writing to the county treasurer for the use ^^'^<is of 

" _ -^ supervisor 

of the school commissioners, showing the amounts of school moneys 
in his hands not paid on the orders of trustees for teachers' wages, 
nor drawn by them for library purposes, and the districts to which 
they stand accredited (and if no such money remain in his hands, 
he shall report the fact) ; and thereafter he shall not pay out any 
of said moneys until he shall have received the certificate of the 
next apportionment; and the moneys so returned by him shall be 
reapportioned as hereinbefore directed. 

§4 It is the duty of every^ supervisor : Duties 

^i To disburse the school moneys in his hands applicable to theDisburse- 
payment of teachers wages, upon and only upon the written orders school moneys 
of a sole trustee or a majority of the trustees, in favor of qualified 

'As amended by section i, chapter 177, laws of 1896, 



22 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

TITLE 3 

teachers, But whenever the collector in any school district shall 
have given bonds for the due and faithful performance of the duties 
of his office as disbursing agent, as required by section 80 of title 7 
of this act, or whenever any school district shall elect a treasurer 
as hereinafter provided, the said supervisor shall, upon the re- 
ceipt by him of a^copy of the bond executed by said collector or 
treasurer as hereinafter required, certified by the trustee or trus- 
Payment over tecs, pay ovcr to such collector or treasurer, all moneys in his hands 

of same to .,, - ^ . , . ^ ^. . - 

collector or applicable to the payment 01 teachers wages m such district, and 
the said collector or treasurer shall disburse such moneys so re- 
ceived by him upon such orders as are specified herein to the teach- 
ers entitled to the same. 

Library 2 To disbursc the library moneys upon, and only upon the writ- 

moneys , P , r- ■ ■ r 1 

ten orders of a sole trustee, or of a majority of the trustees. 
Payment over 3 In the casc of a uuiou free school district, to pay over all the 

of same to . , ^ . ^ ^ . - 

union school school moucy apportioned thereto, whether tor the payment oi 

district -^ - ,. 

teachers wages, or as library moneys, to the treasurer of such dis- 
trict, upon the order of its board of education. 

Accounts of 4 To keep a just and true account of all the school moneys re- 

receipts and . ,,.. ,--.-,. 1 -, . 1 

disbursements ccivcd and disbursed by him during each year, and to lay the same, 
with proper vouchers, before the board of town auditors at each 
annual meeting thereof. 

Blank book 5 To havc a bound blank book, the cost of which shall be a town 

and entries , . , , , . . ^ ^ . . j. 

therein charge, and to enter therein all his receipts and disbursements oi 

school moneys, specifying from whom and for what purposes they 
were received, and to whom and for what purposes they were paid 
out; and to deliver the book to his successor in office. 

Filing of 6 Within 15 days after the termination of his office, to make out 

a just and true account of all school moneys theretofore received 
by him and of all disbursements thereof, and to deliver the same 
to the town clerk, to be filed and recorded, and to notify his suc- 
cessor in office of such rendition and filing. 

Duties toward J So soon as the boud to the county treasurer, required by sec- 

pre ecessor ^.^^ 1 7 of title 2 of this act, shall have been given by him and ap- 
proved by the treasurer, to deliver to his predecessor the treas- 
urer's certificate of these facts, to procure from the town clerk a 
copy of his predecessor's account, and to demand and receive from 
him any and all school moneys remaining in his hands. 

Payment over 8 Upou receiving such a certificate from his successor, and not 

successor" ' bcforc, to pay to him all school moneys remaining in his hands, 
and to forthwith file the certificate in the town clerk's office. 

Recovery of q ]gy j^^g name of officc, when the dutv is not elsewhere imposed 

penalties and y J ' -■ 

forfeitures \yy i^^ ^ ^q g^g foj- g^nd rccovef pcnaltics and forfeitures imposed for 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 25- 

TITLE 4 

violations of this act, and for any default or omission of any town 
officer or school district board or officer under this act; and after 
deducting his costs and expenses to report the balances to the 
school commissioner. 

10 To act, when thereto legally required, in the erection or alter- ^^^I^^^^Oj^^^o^j 
ation of a school district, as in the sixth title of this act provided, school districts 
and to perform any other duty which may be devolved upon him 
by this act, or any other act relating to common schools. 

TITLE IV 

Town clerks; their duties under this act 

§1 It shall be the duty of the town clerk of each town: Duties 

1 Carefully to keep all books, maps, papers and records of his ^j'"®j.^g^^^^'^^*'°" 
office touching common schools, and forthwith to report to the su- 
pervisor any loss or injury to the same. 

2 To receive from the supervisors the certificates of apportion- ^p^^o^^.^^^^j^^j^^. 
ment of school moneys to the town, and to record them in a book 

to be kept for that purpose. 

3 Forthwith to notify the trustees of the several school districts ^ug^egs*'^ 
of the filing of each such certificate. 

4 To see that the trustees of the school districts make and deposit ^po^"^"^ 
with him their annual reports within the time prescribed by law, 

and to deliver them to the school commissioner on demand ; and to 
furnish the school commissioner of the school commissioner dis- n^m^es^f^lis- 
trict in which his town is situated the names and postoffice ad-;^"^^*^^^^^^ 
dresses of the school district officers reported to him by the district sioner 
clerks. 

5 To distribute to the trustees of the school districts all books, ^^^^anks^etc 
blanks and circulars which shall be delivered or forwarded to him 

by the State Superintendent or school commissioner for that 
purpose. 

6 To receive from the supervisor, and record in a book kept for ^j^^°^^ °^ 
that purpose, the annual account of t]ie receipts and disbursements ^'^'^"^"^^ 
of school moneys required to be submitted to the town auditors, 
together with the action of the town auditors thereon, and to send 

a copy of the account and of the action thereon, by mail, to the Jj''^^^'^^'°" 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, whenever required by him, ^^p^""*'^'^'^^"'^ 
and to file and preserve the vouchers accompanying the account. 

7 To receive and to record, in the same book, the supervisor's Final accounts 
final account of the school moneys received and disbursed by him, 

and deliver a copy thereof to such supervisor's successor in office. 



24 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Filing of 

treasurer's 

certificates 



Records of 
districts 



Erection, etc. 
of districts 



Preservation 
of records of 
dissolved 
districts 



General 
duties 



Expenses and 
disbursements 



8 To receive from the outgoing supervisor, and file and record 
in the same book, the county treasurer's certificate, that his suc- 
cessor's bond has been given and approved. 

9 To receive, file and record the descriptions of the school dis- 
tricts, and all papers and proceedings delivered to him by the 
school commissioner pursuant to the provisions of this act. 

10 To act, when thereto legally required, in the erection or alter- 
ation of a school district, as in title 6 of this act provided. 

11 To receive and preserve the books, papers and records of any 
dissolved school district, which shall be ordered, as hereinafter pro- 
vided, to be deposited in his office. 

1 2 To perform any other duty which may be devolved upon him 
by this act, or by any other act touching common schools. 

§2 The necessary expenses and disbursements of the town clerk 
in the performance of his said duties, are a town charge, and shall 
be audited and paid as such. 



School com- 
missioner 



School com- 
missioner 
districts 



Division of 
districts 



Election of 
new com- 
missioner 



Election of 
school com- 
missioners 



TITLE V 

School commissioners ; their election, powers and duties 

§1 The office of school commissioner is continued, and the pres- 
ent incumbents shall continue in office in their respective districts, 
for the residue of the terms for which they were elected or ap- 
pointed. 

§2 The school commissioner districts duly and legally organized, 
and as the same existed January i, 1894, shall continue to be held 
and recognized as the school commissioner districts of the state 
until the same shall be altered or modified by the Legislature. No 
city shall be included in, or form a part of any school commissioner 
district. In any school commissioner district that contains more 
than 100 school districts, the board of supervisors may divide such 
commissioner district, within the county, and erect therefrom an 
additional school commissioner district; and when such district 
shall have been formed a school commissioner for such district shall 
be elected in the manner provided by law for the election of school 
commissioners. 

§3 A school commissioner for each school commissioner district 
shall be elected by the electors thereof, at the general election in 
the year 1896, and trienniahy thereafter. Any person of full age, 
a citizen of the United States, a resident of the state, and of the 
county in which a school commissioner district is situated, shall 
be eligible to the office of school commissioner. No person shall 
be deemed ineligible to such office by reason of sex who has the 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 25 

TITLE 5 

Other qualifications as herein provided. It shall be the duty of Certificate of 
county clerks, and they are hereby required, as soon as they shall for wl'^dedto^ 
have official notice of the election or appointment of a school com- 
missioner, for any district in their county, to forward to the Su- 
perintendent of Public Instruction a duplicate certificate of such 
election or appointment, attested by their signature and the seal 
of the county. 

§4 The term of office of such commissioner shall commence on Term of office 
the first day of January next after his election, and shall be for 
three years, and until his or her successor qualifies. Every person 
elected to the office, or appointed to fill a vacancy, must take the official oath 
oath of office prescribed by the Constitution, before the county 
clerl: :r before any officer authorized to take, within this state, 
the acknowledgement of the execution of a deed of real property, 
and file it with the county clerk; and if he or she omit so to do, 
the office shall be deemed vacant. 

§5 A commissioner may, at any time, vacate his or her office Resignations 
by filing his or her resignation with the county clerk. His or 
her removal from the county, or the acceptance of the office of Vacating 
supervisor, town clerk or trustee of a school district, shall vacate 
his or her office. 

§6 The county clerk, so soon as he has official or other notice Vacancies 
of the existence of a vacancy in the office of school commissioner, 
shall give notice thereof to the county judge, or, if that office be 
vacant, to the Superintendent of Public Instruction. In case 
of a Tacancy the county judge, or, if there be no county judge, 
then the Superintendent shall appoint a commissioner, who shall 
hold his office until the first of January succeeding the next gen- 
eral election, and until his successor, who shall be chosen at such 
general election, shall have qualified. A person elected to fill 
a vacancy shall hold the office only for t*he unexpired term. 

§7 Ever}^ school commissioner shall receive an annual salary Annual 
of $iooo, payable quarterly out of the free school fund appropriated 
for this purpose. 

§8 Whenever a majority of the supervisors from all the towns increase of 
composing a school commissioner district shall adopt a resolution 
to increase the salary of their school commissioner beyond the 
$iooo payable to him from the free school fund, it shall be the 
duty of the board of supervisors of the county to give effect to 
such resolution, and they shall assess the increase stated therein 
upon the towns composing such commissioner district, ratably, 
according to the corrected valuations of the real and personal 
estate of such towns. 



26 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Expenses of 
commissioner 



Superintend- 
ent may with- 
hold salary 



Commissioner 
to serve for 
another 



Not to act as 
agent for 
avithor, pub- 
lisher etc. 



Penalty 



Duties 



Defining dis- 
trict bound- 



Expenses 
thereof 



§9 The board of supervisors shall annually audit and allow 
to each commissioner within the county a fixed sum of at least 
$200 for his expenses, and shall assess and levy that amount 
annually, by tax upon the towns composing his district. 

§10 Whenever the Superintendent of Public Instruction is 
satisfied that a school commissioner has persistently neglected 
to perform his duties, he may withhold his order for the payment 
of the whole or any part of such commissioner's salary as it shall 
become due, and the salary so withheld shall be forfeited ; but 
the Superintendent may remit the forfeiture in whole or in part, 
upon the commissioner disproving or excusing such neglect. 

§11 A commissioner, upon the written request of the commis- 
sioner of an adjoining district, may perform any of his duties 
for him, and upon requirement of the State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction must perform the same. 

§12 No school commissioner shall be directly or indirectly 
engaged in the business of a publisher of school books, maps or 
charts, or of a bookseller, or in the manufacture or sale of school 
apparatus or furniture; nor shall he act as agent for an author, 
publisher, or bookseller, or dealer in school books, maps or charts, 
or manufacturer of or dealer in any school furniture or apparatus; 
nor directly or indirectly receive any gift, emolument, reward 
or promise of reward, for his influence in recommending or pro- 
curing the use of any book, map or chart, or school apparatus, 
or furniture of any kind whatever, in any common or union free 
school, or the purchase of any books for a school district library. 
Any violation of this provision, or any part thereof, shall be a 
misdemeanor; and any such violation shall subject such com- 
missioner to removal from his office by the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction. 

§13 Every commissioner shall have power, and it shall be 
his duty: 

I From time to time to inquire into and ascertain whether the 
boundaries of the school districts within his district are definitely 
and plainly described in the records of the proper town clerks; 
and in case the record of the boundaries of any school district 
shall be found defective or indefinite, or if the same shall be in 
dispute, then to cause the same to be amended, or an amended 
record of the boundaries to be made. All necessary expenses 
incurred in establishing such amended records shall be a charge 
upon the district or districts affected, to be audited and allowed 
by the trustee or trustees thereof, upon the certificate of the school 
commissioner. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 2/ 

TITLE 5 

2 To visit and examine all the schools and school districts Visitation 
within his district as often in each year as shall be practicable ; tion of schools 
to inquire into all matters relating to the management, the course 

of study and mode of instruction, and the textbooks and discipline 
of such schools, and the condition of the schoolhouses, sites, out- 
buildings and appendages, and of the district generally; to exam- Libraries, 
ine the school libraries; to advise with and counsel the trustees etc. 
and other officers of the district in relation to their duties, and 
particularly in respect to the construction, heating, ventilating 
and lighting of schoolhouses > and the improving and adorning 
of the school grounds connected therewith; and to recommend Recommenda- 
to the trustees and teachers the proper studies, disciphne and studies 
management of the schools, and the course of instruction to be 
pursued. 

3 Upon such examination, to direct the trustees to make any May direct 

1 ■ - - 1 1 11 1 -1 1- trustees to 

alterations or repairs on the schoolhouse or outbuildings which make repairs 
shall, in his opinion, be necessary for the health or comfort of 
the pupils, but the expense of making such alterations or repairs 
shall, in no case, exceed the sum of $200, unless an additional 
sum shall be voted by the district. He may also direct the trus- 
tee to make any alterations or repairs to school furniture, or when Alteration 

or repairs 

m his opinion any furniture is unfit for use and not worth repair- to school 

■; . . furniture 

mg, or when sufficient furniture is not provided, he may direct 
that new furniture shall be provided as he may deem necessary, 
provided that the expense of such alterations, repairs or addi- 
tions to furniture shall not, in any one year exceed the sum of 
$100, He may also direct the trustees to abate any nuisance Abatement 

, , of nuisances 

in or upon the premises, provided the same can be done at an 
expense not exceeding $25. 

'4 By an order under his hand, reciting the reason or reasons, Condemnation 
to condemn a schoolhouse, if he deems it wholly unfit for use andhousc°° 
not worth repairing, and to deliver the order to the trustees, or 
one of them, and transmit a copy to the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. Such order, if no time for its taking effect is stated 
in it; shall take effect immediately. He shall also state what Estimates for 

.,,.,,...,, 1 11 erection of 

sum, Will, m his opinion, be necessary to erect a schoolhouse cap- schoolhouses 

able of accommodating the children of the district. Immediately 

upon the receipt of said order the trustee or trustees of such dis- Special meet- 

■^ -^ ing for con- 

trjct shall call a special meeting of the inhabitants of said dis-^idenng 

-^ _ ° _ question 

trict for the purpose of considering the question of building a 
schoolhouse therein. Such meeting shall have the power to deter- 



^As amended by section i, chapter 512, laws of 1897. 



28 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Erection of 
building upon 
neglect to 
vote tax 



Tax for pay- 
ment thereof 



Increase of 
estimate 
by vote 

Examination 
and licensing 
of teachers 



Restrictions 
as to granting 
certificates 



Examination 
of charges 
asjainst 
teachers 



Annulment 
of certificates 



General duties 



Affidavits 
and oaths 



mine the size of said schoolhouse, the material to be used in its 
erection, and to vote a tax to build the same. But such meeting 
shall have no power to reduce the estimate made by the com- 
missioner aforesaid by more than 25 per centum of such estimate. 
And where no tax for building such house shall have been voted 
by such district within 30 days from the time of holding the first 
meeting to consider the question, then it shall be the duty of the 
trustee or trustees of such district to contract for the building 
of a schoolhouse capable of accommodating the children of the 
district, and to levy a tax to pay for the same, which tax shall 
not exceed the sum estimated as necessary by the commissioner 
aforesaid, and which shall not be less than such estimated sum 
by more than 25 per centum thereof. But such estimated sum 
may be increased by a vote of the inhabitants at any school meeting 
subsequently called and held according to law. 

5 To examine, under such rules and regulations as have been 
or may be prescribed by the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion persons proposing to teach common schools within his dis- 
trict, and not possessing the superintendent's certificate of quali- 
fication or a diploma of a state normal school, and to inquire 
into their moral fitness and capacity, and, if he find them quali- 
fied, to grant them certificates of qualification, in the forms which 
are or may be prescribed by the Superintendent. No certificate 
shall be granted to any person to teach in the public schools of 
this state, who has not passed a satisfactory examination in physi- 
ology and hygiene, with special reference to the effects of alco- 
holic drinks, stimulants and narcotics upon the human system. 
No certificate shall be granted to any person under the age of 
18 years. 

6 To examine any charge affecting the moral character of any 
teacher within his district, first giving such teacher reasonable 
notice of the charge, and an opportunity to defend himself there- 
from; and if he find the charge sustained, to annul the teacher's 
certificate, by whomsoever granted, and to declare him unfit to 
teach; and if the teacher holds a certificate of the Superintendent, 
or a diploma of a state normal school, to notify the Superintendent 
forthwith of such annulment and declaration. 

7 And, generally, to use his utmost influence and most strenu- 
ous exertions to promote sound education, elevate the character 
and qualifications of teachers, improve the means of instruction 
and advance the interests of the schools under his supervision. 

§14 Every school commissioner shall have power to take affi- 
davits and administer oaths in all matters pertaining to common 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 2^ 

TITLE S 

schools, but without charge or fee; and, under the direction of 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to take and report to 
him the testimony in any case of appeal. When so directed by issuing of 

,~ .- .- .. 1111 • subpoenas, 

the bupermtendent, said commissioner shall have power to issue etc. 
subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses. Service of 
said subpoenas shall be made a reasonable time before the time 
therein named for the hearing, by exhibiting the same to the 
person so served, with the signature of the commissioner attached, 
and by leaving with such person a copy thereof. The person so 
served shall be entitled to receive from the person or officer at 
whose instance he is subpoenaed, at the time of service, the same 
fees as provided by law for witnesses in courts of records. Dis- 
obedience of such subpoena shall subject the delinquent to a pen- Penalty for 

1 • 1 1 11 r-n • • T disobedience 

alty of $25, which shall, unless suincient excuse is shown, upon of subpoenas 

the certificate of the commissioner showing such facts, be imposed 

by the county judge of the county in which such commissioner 

resides, and shall be paid forthwith to the county treasurer for 

the benefit of the poor of the county, or, in case such penalty shall 

not be paid, such delinquent shall stand committed to the county 

jail of the county for the period of 25 days, unless sooner paid. 

§15 The commissioners shall be subject to such rules and regu- Rules a,nd 
lations as the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall, from 
time to time, prescribe, and appeals from their acts and decisions 
may be made to him, as hereinafter provided. They shall, when- Reports to 

. Superin- 

ever required by the Superintendent, report to him as to anytendent 

particular matter or act, and shall severally make to him annually, 

to the first day in August in each year, a report in such form and 

containing all such particulars as he shall prescribe and call for; 

and, for that purpose, shall procure the reports of the trustees 

of the school districts from the town clerk's offices, and, after Annual report 

1-1 1 /• 1 11 1 from returns 

abstracting the necessary contents thereof, shall arrange and of school .. 

trustees 

indorse them properly and deposit them, with a copy of his own 
abstract thereof, in the office of the county clerk, and the clerk 
shall safely keep them. 

§^16 It shall be the duty of all trustees and boards of educa- Use of school 

. . . building for 

tion for school districts under the supervision of school com- examinations 
missioners, to grant the use of any school building under their 
charge for all examinations appointed by the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, upon the written request of the commissioner 
having jurisdiction over the same. 



30 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Duties as to 
school districts 



Joint districts 



Descriptions 
and numbers 
of districts 



Alteration of 
districts upon 
consent 



Ordering of 
alterations 
upon refusal 
of consent 



Notice of 
hearing ob- 
jections to 
alterations 



Supervisor 
and cleric 
associated 
with com- 
missioner 



Hearing and 

decision 

thereon 



TITLE VI 
School districts ; formation, alteration and dissolution thereof 

§1 It shall be the duty of each school commissioner, in respect 
to the territory within his district: 

I To divide it, so far as practicable, into a convenient number 
of school districts, and alter the same as herein provided. 

' 2 In conjunction with the commissioner or commissioners of 
an adjoining school commissioner district or districts, to set off 
joint districts, composed of adjoining parts of their respective 
districts, and ' separately to institute proceedings to alter the 
same in respect to the territory within his own district. 

3 To describe and number the school districts, and joint dis- 
tricts, and to deliver, in writing, to the town clerk, the descrip- 
tion and number of each district lying in whole or in part in his 
town, together with all notices, consents and proceedings relat- 
ing to the formation or alteration thereof, immediately after 
such formation or alteration. Every joint district shall bear the 
same number in every school commissioner district of whose 
territory it is in part composed. 

§2 With the written consent of the trustees of all the dis- 
tricts to be affected thereby, he may, by order, alter any school 
district within his jurisdiction, and fix, by said order, a day when 
the alteration shall take effect. 

§3 If the trustees of any such district refuse to consent, he 
may make and file with the town clerk his order making the alter- 
ation, but reciting the refusal, and directing that the order shall 
not take effect, as to the dissenting district or districts, until a 
day therein to be named, and not less than three months after 
the date of such order. 

' §4 Within lo days after making and filing such order he shall 
give at least a week's notice in writing to one or more of the assent- 
ing and dissenting trustees of any district or districts to be affected 
by the proposed alterations, that at a specified time, and at a named 
place within the town in which either of the districts to be affected 
lies he will hear the objections to the alteration. The trustees 
of any district to be affected by such order may request the super- 
visor and town clerk of the town or towns, within which such 
district or districts shall wholly or partly lie, to be associated 
with the commissioner. At the time and place mentioned in 
the notice the commissioner, or commissioners, with the super- 



lAs amended by section i, chapter 223, laws of 1895 
2As amended by section 4, chapter 264, laws of 1896. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 3I 

TITLE 6 

visors and town clerks, if they shall attend and act, shall hear 
and decide the matter; and the decision shall be final unless duly 
appealed from. Such decision must either affirm or vacate the filing of 

^ -"^ _ decision 

order of the commissioner, and must be filed with and recorded 
by the town clerk of the town or towns in which the district or 
districts to be affected shall lie, and a tie vote shall be regarded 
a decision for the purposes of an appeal on the merits. Upon 
such appeal the Superintendent of Public Instruction may affirm, 
modify or vacate the order of the commissioner or the action of 
the local board. 

§5 The supervisor and town clerk shall be entitled each, to Fees of super- 

. . - visor and 

$1.50 a day, for each days service m any such matter, to be town clerk 
levied and paid as a charge upon their town. 

' §6 Any school commissioner may also, with the written co^-^is^oi^^^^wn 
sent of the trustees of all the districts to be affected thereby, 
dissolve one or more school districts adjoining any union free 
school district other than one whose limits correspond with any 
city or incorporated village, and annex the territory of such dis- 
tricts so dissolved to such union free school district. He may 
alter the boimdaries of any union free school district whose limits Alteration of 

. . . ...^^ boundaries of 

do not correspond with those of any city or incorporated village, union free 

^. ^ school districts 

m like manner as alterations of common school districts may be 
made as herein provided; but no school district shall be divided, 
which has any bonded indebtedness outstanding. 

§7 Whenever it may become necessary or convenient to form a Formation of 

11-,.. r- ^ r ■ • joint districts 

school district out of parcels of two or more school commissioner 
districts, the commissioners of such districts, or a majority of them, 
may form such district ; and the commissioners within whose dis- 
tricts any such school district lies, or a majority of them, may alter Alteration or 

dissolution 

or dissolve it. 

§8 If a school commissioner, by notice in writing, shall require Special meet- 

. . . . ing for alter- 

the attendance of the other commissioner or commissioners, at aingordis- 

. . . ^. ^ . . ^.,. ,.. solving joint 

joint meeting lor the purpose of altering or dissolving such a joint districts 
district, and a majority of all the commissioners shall refuse or 
neglect to attend, the commissioner or commissioners attending, 
or any one of them, may call a special meeting of such school dis- 
trict for the purpose of deciding whether such district shall be dis- j 
solved; and its decision of that question shall be as valid as though 
made by the commissioners. 

^§9 Any school commissioner may dissolve one or more districts Consolidation 

1 i- ,.. -.., ,.of districts 

and may irom such territory form a new district , he may also unite 



'As amended by section 2, chapter 512, laws of 1897. 
2As amended by section 4, chapter 264, laws of 1896. 



32 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE 6 



Sale of 
property of 
dissolved 
districts 



Application 
of proceeds 



Collections 
of outstanding 
moneys 



Apportion- 
ment and 
application 
of same 



Dissolved dis- 
tricts to exist 
in law for 
settlement 
of affairs 



Deposit of 
records etc. 
with town 
clerk 



Penalty for 
refusal to 
obey orders 



a portion of such territory to any existing adjoining district or dis- 
tricts. When two or more districts shall be consolidated into one, 
the new district shall succeed to all the rights of property, possessed 
by the annulled districts. 

§io When a district is parted into portions, which are annexed 
to other districts, its property shall be sold by the supervisor of the 
town, within which its schoolhouse is situate, at public auction, 
after at least five days' notice, by notice posted in three or more 
public places of the town in which the schoolhouse is situated, one 
of which shall be posted in the district so dissolved. The super- 
visor, after deducting the expenses of the sale, shall apply its pro- 
ceeds to the payment of the debts of the district, and apportion 
the residue, if any, among the owners or possessors of taxable 
property in the district, in the ratio of their several assessments 
on the last corrected assessment roll or rolls of the town or towns, 
and pay it over accordingly. 

§11 The supervisor of the town within which the schoolhouse of 
the dissolved district was situated may demand, sue for, and col- 
lect, in his name of office, any money of the district outstanding 
in the hands of any of its former officers, or any other person; and, 
after deducting his costs and expenses, shall report the balance 
to the school commissioner who shall apportion the same equitably 
among the districts to which the parts of the dissolved districts 
were annexed, to be by them applied as their district meetings 
shall determine. 

§12 Though a district be dissolved, it shall continue to exist in 
law for the purpose of providing for and paying all its just debts; 
and to that end the trustees and other officers shall continue in 
office, and the inhabitants may hold special meetings, elect officers 
to supply vacancies, and vote taxes; and all other acts neces- 
sary to raise money and pay such debts shall be done by the in- 
habitants and officers of the district. 

§13 The commissioner, or a majority of the commissioners in 
whose district or districts a dissolved school district was situated, 
shall by his or their order in writing, delivered to the clerk of the 
district, or to any person in whose possession the books, papers 
and records of the district, or any of them, may be, direct such 
■ clerk or other person to deposit the same in the clerk's office in a 
town in the order named. Such clerk or other person, by neglect 
or refusal to obey the order, shall forfeit $50, to be applied to the 
benefit of the common schools of said town. The commissioner or 
commissioners shall file a duplicate of the order with such clerk. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 3.3 

TITLE 7 

i§i4 All the fights, powers and duties conferred upon school Extension of 

commissioners by titles 5 and 6 of this act, including the sole powers 

authority to examine and license, under the rules prescribed by 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, all persons proposing to 
teach common schools, not possessing the qualifications men- 
tioned in subdivision 5 of section 13 of title 5, shall extend to all 
districts organized under special acts, and all parts of such special 
acts inconsistent therewith are hereby repealed. 

TITLE VII 

Meetings in common school districts; the election of school district officers 
and their powers and duties 

ARTICLE I 

Of common school district meetings, who are voters, and their powers 

§1 Whenever any school district shall be formed, the commis- ^^^^^ "^^stnet 
sioner or any one or more of the commissioners, within whose dis- 
trict or districts it may be, shall prepare a notice describing: such Notice of 

. ° first meeting 

district, and appointing a time and place for the first district meet- 
ing, and deliver such notice to a taxable inhabitant of the district. 

§2 It shall be the duty of such inhabitant to notify every other ^"^"^^yi^e of 
inhabitant of the district qualified to vote at the meeting, by 
reading the notice in his hearing, or in case of his absence from 
home, by leaving a copy thereof, or so much thereof as relates to 
the time, place and object of the meeting, at the place of his abode, 
at least six days before the time of the meeting. 

§3 In case such meeting shall not be held, and in the opinion of May give 
the commissioner it shall be necessary to hold such meeting, before in;? before 
the time herein fixed for the first annual meeting, he shall deliver 
another such notice to a taxable inhabitant of the district, who 
shall serve it as hereinbefore provided. 

§4 When the clerk and all the trustees of a school district shall Special dis- 
have removed from the district, or their office shall be vacant, sowhencom- 
that a special meeting can not be called, as hereinafter provided, caii"'""^'^ "^*^ 
the commissioner may in like manner give notice of, and call a 
special district meeting. 

§5 Every taxable inhabitant, to whom a notice of any district Penalty for 
meeting shall be delivered for service, pursuant to any provisions serve notice 
of this article, who shall refuse or neglect to serve the same, as 
hereinbefore prescribed, shall forfeit $5 for the benefit of the dis- 
trict. 



'Added by section 3, chapter 512, laws of 1897, 



34 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Special dis- 
trict meetings 



Animal meet- 
ing may pre- 
scribe mode 
of giving notice 



Proceedings, 
when illegal 



Annual school 
district meet- 
ing 



Proceedings, 
when annual 
meeting not 
held 



§6 A special district meeting shall be held whenever called by 
the trustees. The notice thereof shall state the purposes for which 
it is called, and no business shall be transacted at such special 
meeting, except that which is specified in the notice; and the dis- 
trict clerk, or, if the office be vacant, or he be sick, or absent, or 
shall refuse to act, a trustee or some taxable inhabitant, by order 
of the trustees, shall serve the notice upon each inhabitant of the 
district qualified to vote at district meetings, at least five days 
before the day of the meeting, in the manner prescribed in the second 
section of this title. But the inhabitants of any district may, at 
any annual meeting, adopt a resolution prescribing some other 
mode of giving notice of special meetings, which resolution and the 
mode prescribed thereby shall continue in force until rescinded or 
modified at some subsequent annual meeting. 

§7 The proceedings of no district meeting, annual or special, 
shall be held illegal for want of a due notice to all the persons 
qualified to vote thereat, unless it shall appear that the omission 
to give such notice was wilful and fraudulent. 

§8 The annual meeting of each school district shall be held on 
the first Tuesday of August in each year, and, unless the hour and 
place thereof shall have been fixed by a vote of a previous district 
meeting, the same shall be held in the schoolhouse at 7.30 o'clock 
in the evening. If a district possesses more than one schoolhouse, 
it shall be held in the one usually employed for that purpose, unless 
the trustees designate another. If the district possesses no school- 
house, or if the schoolhouse shall be no longer accessible, then 
the annual meeting shall be held at such place as the trustees, or, 
if there be no trustee, the clerk, shall designate in the notice. 

§9 Whenever the time for holding the annual meeting in school 
districts shall pass without such meeting being held in any district, 
a special meeting shall thereafter be called by the trustees or by 
the clerk of such district for the purpose of transacting the busi- 
ness of the annual meeting; and if no such meeting be called by 
the trustees or the clerk within 20 days after such time shall have 
passed, the school commissioner of the commissioner district in 
which said school district is situated, or the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction may order any inhabitant of such district to 
give notice 'of such meeting in the manner provided in the second 
section of this title, and the officers of the district shall make to 
such meeting the reports required to be made at the annual meeting^ 
subject to the same penalty in the case of neglect ; and the officers 
elected at such meeting shall hold their respective offices only until 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 35 

TITLE 7 

the next annual meeting and until their successors are elected and 
shall have qualified as in this act provided. 

§io Whenever any district meeting shall be duly called, it shall ^^^{^Ytante''' 
be the duty of the inhabitants qualified to vote thereat, to assemble J^PgO^.^aii oi 
at the time and place fixed for the meeting. 

§11 Every person of full age residing in any school district and^^^f^l'^^^'j^'j^j, 
who has resided therein for a period of 30 days next preceding any 
annual or special election held therein, and a citizen of the United 
States, who owns or hires, or is in the possession under a contract 
of purchase, of real property in such school district liable to taxa- 
tion for school purposes; and every such resident of such district, 
who is a citizen of the United States, of 21 years of age, and is the 
parent of a child or children of school age, some one or more of 
whom shall have attended the district school in said district for a 
period of at least eight weeks within one year preceding such school 
meeting; and every such person not being the parent, who shall 
have permanently residing with him or her a child or children of 
school age, some one or more of whom shall have attended the dis- 
trict school in said district for a period of at least eight weeks 
within one year preceding such school meeting; and every such 
resident and citizen as aforesaid, who owns any personal property, 
assessed on the last preceding assessment roll of the town, exceeding 
$50 in value, exclusive of such as is exempt from execution, and 
no other shall be entitled to vote at any school meeting held in such 
district, for all school district officers and upon all matters which 
may be brought before said meeting. No person shall be deemed Persons not 

J ° . . ineligible by 

to be ineligible to vote at any such school district meeting, by reason of sex 
reason of sex, who has one or more of the other qualifications 
required by this section. 

§12 If any person offering to vote at any school district meeting Challenges 
shall be challenged as unqualified, by any legal voter in such dis- 
trict, the chairman presiding at such meeting shall require the 
person so offering, to make the following declaration : " I do declare Declarations 

^ o ' . o thereupon 

and affirm that I am, and have been, for the 30 days last past, 
an actual resident of this school district and that I am qualified to 
vote at this meeting." And every person making such declaration 
shall be permitted to vote on all questions proposed at such meet- 
ing; but if any person shall refuse to make such declaration, his or 
her vote shall be rejected. 

§ 1 3 Any person who shall wilfully make a false declaration of f^^^^^ voting, 
his or her right to vote at any such school meeting, after his or her 
right to vote thereat has been challenged, shall be deemed guilty of 



36 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Ballot box 



Inspectors 
of election 



Poll list 



Ballots 



Declaration 
of result 



Treasurer, 
election of, 
how deter- 
mined 



Eligibility 
to office 



Term uf 
office 



a misdemeanor. And any person not qualified to vote at any such 
meeting, who shall vote thereat, shall thereby forfeit $5, to be sued 
for by the supervisor for the benefit of the common schools of the 
town. 

§14 The inhabitants entitled to vote, when duly assembled in 
any district meeting, shall have power, by a majority of the votes 
of those present: 

1 To appoint a chairman for the time being. 

2 If the district clerk be absent to appoint a clerk for the time. 

3 To adjourn from time to time as occasionrnay require. 

4 Ta elect one or three trustees as hereinafter provided, a dis- 
trict clerk and a district collector, and in any district which shall 
so determine, as hereinafter provided, to elect a treasurer, at their 
first meeting, and so often as such offices or any of them become 
vacated, except as hereinafter provided. All district officers shall 
be elected by ballot. At elections of district officers, the trustees 
shall provide a suitable ballot box. Two inspectors of election 
shall be appointed in such manner as the meeting shall determine, 
who shall receive the votes cast, and canvass the same, and an- 
nounce the result of the ballot to the chairman. A poll list con- 
taining the name of every person whose vote shall be received shall 
be kept by the district clerk, or the clerk for the time of the meeting. 
The ballots shall be written or printed, or partly written and partly 
printed, containing the name of the person voted for and desig- 
nating the office for which each is voted for. The chairman shall 
declare to the meeting the result of each ballot, as announced to 
him by the inspectors, and the persons having the majority of 
votes, respectively, for the several offices, shall be elected. 

5 At the first meeting, or at any subsequent annual meeting, 
or at any special meeting duly called for that purpose, the quali- 
fied voters of any school district are authorized to adopt by a vote 
of a majority of such voters present and voting, to be ascertained 
by taking and recording the ayes and noes, a resolution to elect a 
treasurer of said district, who shall be the custodian of all moneys 
belonging to said district, and the disbursing officer of such moneys. 
If such resolution shall be adopted, such voters shall thereupon 
elect by a ballot a treasurer for said district. No person shall be 
eligible to the office of treasurer unless he is a qualified voter in, 
and a taxable inhabitant of said district. Any person elected 
treasurer at any meeting other than an annual meeting, shall hold 
office until the next annual meeting after such election, and \intil 
his successor shall be elected or appointed, and thereafter a treasurer 
shall be elected at each annual meeting for the term of one year. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 57 

TITLE 7 

6 To fix the amount in which the collector and treasurer shall Collector's 
give bonds for the due and faithful performance of the duties of bonds 
their offices. 

7 To designate a site for a schoolhouse, or, with the consent ^f®g-f"^*^'°" 
of the commissioner or commissioners within whose district or 
districts the schoolhouse lies, to designate sites for two or more 
schoolhouses for the district. Such designation of a site or sites Special meet- 

r 111 1 11 -1 • r 1 I- ^"'^ therefor 

tor a schoolhouse can be made only at a special meetmg of the dis- 
trict, duly called for such purpose by a written resolution in which 
the proposed site shall be described by metes and bounds, and 
which resolution must receive the assent of a majority of the quali- 
fied voters present and voting, to be ascertained by taking and 
recording the ayes and noes. 

8 To vote a tax upon the taxable property of the district to Tax for sites 

. f i- J ^^^ school- 

purchase, lease and improve such site or sites or an addition to houses 

such site or sites ; to hire or purchase rooms or buildings for school- 
rooms or schoolhouses, or to build schoolhouses; and to keep in 
repair and furnish the same with necessary fuel, furniture and 
appendages. 

9 To vote a tax, not exceeding $25 in any one year, for the pur- Tax for ap- 
chase of maps, globes, blackboards and other school apparatus, textbooks 
and for the purchase of textbooks and other school necessaries 

for the use of poor scholars of the district. 

10 To vote a tax for the establishment of a school library and Tax for school 

librar" 

the maintenance thereof, or for the support of any school librar}^ 
already owned by said district, and for the purchase of books 
therefor, and such sum as they may deem necessary for the pur- 
chase of a bookcase. 

n To vote a tax to supply a deficiencv in any former tax arising Tax for 

' ° deficiencies 

from such tax being, in whole or in part, uncollectible. 

1 2 To authorize the trustees to cause the schoolhouse or school- insurance of 

. . property 

houses, and their furniture, appendages and school apparatus to 
be insured by an}^ insurance company created by or under the 
laws of this state. 

13 To alter, repeal and modify their proceedings, from time to ^-teration of 

'■ ° proceedings 

time, as occasion may require. 

14 To vote a tax for the purchase of a book for the purpose of Tax for 

'- ^ record book 

recording their proceedings. 

1 1; To vote a tax to replace monevs of the district, lost or em- Tax to re- 

_ place moneys 

bezzled by district officers ; and to pay the reasonable expenses in- Expenses of 
curred by district officers in defending suits or appeals brought 
against them for their official acts, or in prosecuting suits or appeals 
by direction of the district against other parties. 



38 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Tax for 

teachers' 
wages 

Trustees 
may raise 
moneys 



Tax for 

judgments 
for teachers' 
wages 



Trustees may 
levy tax 
without vote 



Trustees may 
call meeting 



Vote on 
expenditures 
of money or 
lew of tax 



Conveyance 
of pupils to 
other districts 



1 6 To vote a tax to pay whatever deficiency there may be in 
teachers' wages after the pubhc money apportioned to the district 
shall have been appHed thereto ; but if the inhabitants shah neglect 
or refuse to vote a tax for this purpose, or if they shall vote a tax 
which shall prove insufficient to cover such deficiency, then the 
trustees are authorized, and it is hereby made their duty, to raise, 
by district tax, any reasonable sum that may be necessary to pay 
the balance of teachers' wages remaining unpaid, the same as if 
such tax had been authorized by a vote of the inhabitants. 

17 To vote a tax to pay and satisfy of record any judgment or 
judgments of a competent court which may have been or shall 
hereafter be obtained in an action against the trustees of the dis- 
trict for unpaid teachers' wages against the trustees of the district, 
where the time to appeal from said judgment or judgments shall 
have lapsed, or there shall be no intent to appeal on the part of 
such district, or the said judgment or judgments is or are or shall 
be of the court of last resort ; but if the inhabitants shall neglect or 
refuse to vote a tax for this purpose, or, if they vote a tax which 
shall prove insufficient to fully satisfy said judgment or judgments, 
then the trustees are authorized and it is hereby made their duty 
to raise by district tax the amount of said judgment or judgments, 
or the deficiency which may exist in any tax voted by said inhabi- 
tants to pa}^ said judgment or judgments, the same as if such tax 
had been authorized by a vote of the inhabitants, and the trustees 
are hereby authorized, and it is hereb}^ made their duty forthwith, 
after the expiration of 30 days from notice of any judgment or 
judgments having been entered against the district or the trustees 
thereof for unpaid teachers' wages, to call a meeting of the inhabi- 
tants of said district, who shall have power, as aforesaid, to vote a 
tax to pay said judgment or judgments; and in case they refuse or 
neglect to do so, the trustees are authorized, and it is hereby made 
their duty, unless said judgment or judgments are appealed from, 
to raise by district tax the amount of said judgment or judgments 
as hereinbefore provided. 

18 In all propositions arising at said district meetings, involving 
the expenditure of money, or authorizing the levy of a tax or taxes, 
the vote thereon shall be by ballot, or ascertained by taking and 
recording the ayes and noes of such qualified voters attending and 
voting at such district meetings. 

'19 Whenever any district shall have contracted w4th the school 
authorities of any city, village or other school district for the edu- 



lAdded by section s, chapter 264, laws of 1896; and amended by chapter 175, laws of 1903. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 39 

TITLE 7 

cation therein of the pupils residing in such school district, or when-' 
ever in any school district children of school age shall reside so 
remote from the schoolhouse therein that they are practically 
deprived of school advantages during any portion of the school 
year, the inhabitants thereof entitled to vote are authorized to 
provide, by tax or otherwise, for the conveyance of anv or all 
pupils residing therein to the schools of such city, village or district 
with which such contract shall have been made, or to the school 
maintained in said district, and the trustees thereof may contract 
for such conveyance when so authorized in accordance with such 
rules and regulations as they may establish, and for the purpose of 
defraying any expense incurred in carrying out the provisions of 
this act, the}^ may if necessary use any portion of the public money 
apportioned to such district as a district quota. 

§ 1 5 In school districts in which the number of children of school Election of 
age exceeds 300, as shown by the last annual report of the trustees districts over 
to the school commissioners, the qualified voters of any such dis- 
trict, at any annual meeting thereof, may by the vote of a majority 
of those present and voting, to be ascertained by taking and record- 
ing the ayes and noes, determine that the election of officers of 
said district shall be held on the Wednesday next following the 
day designated by law for holding the annual meeting of said dis-T^meof 

TT -1 11 • • 1111 1 1 holding same 

trict. Until such determination shall be changed, such election 
shall be held on the Wednesday next following the day on which 
such annual meeting of such district shall be held in each year 
between the hours of 12 o'clock noon and 4 o'clock in the after- 
noon, at the principal schoolhouse in such district, or such other 
suitable place as the trustees may designate. When the place of Notice of 
holding such election is other than at the principal schoolhouse , "'^'^ '°" 
the trustees shall give notice thereof by the publication of such 
notice, at least one week before the time of holding such election, 
in some newspaper published in the district, or by posting the same 
in five conspicuous places in the district. The trustees may, by Extension 
resolution, extend the time of holding the election from four o'clock" ""^*^ 
until sunset. The trustees shall act as inspectors of election, andinscrtors 
if a majority of the trustees shall not be present at the time for° ^"^ '°" 
opening the polls, those of them in attendance may appoint any of 
the legal voters of the district present to act as inspectors in place 
of the absent trustees ; and if none of the trustees shall be present 
at the time of opening the polls, the legal voters present may 
choose three of their number to act as inspectors. If any such dis- 
trict shall have but one trustee, the legal voters of the district 



40 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE 7 



present at the time of opening the polls, may choose two of their 
number to act with said trustee as inspectors. The district clerk 
shall attend at the election, and record in a book to be provided 
for that purpose, the name of each elector as he or she deposits his 
or her ballot. If the district clerk shall be absent, or shall be unable 
or refuse to act, the trustees or inspectors of election shall appoint 
some person who is a legal voter in the district to act in his place. 
Any clerk or acting clerk at such election who shall neglect or 
refuse to record the name of a person whose ballot is received by 
the inspectors, shall be liable to a fine of $25, to be sued for by the 
supervisor of the town. If any person offering to vote at such 
election shall be challenged as unqualified, by any legal voter, the 
chairman of the inspectors shall require the person so offering to 
vote to make the following declaration: "I do declare and alhrm 
that I am and have been for the 30 days last past an actual resident 
of this school district, and that I am legally qualified to vote at 
this election." Every person making such declaration shall be 
permitted to vote; but if any person shall refuse to make such 
declaration, his or her ballot shall not be received by the inspectors. 
Any person who, upon being so challenged, shall wilfully make a 
false declaration of his or her right to vote at such election, is 
guilty of a misdemeanor. Any person who shall vote at such 
election, not being duly qualified, shall, though not challenged, 
forfeit the sum of $10, to be sued for by the supervisor of the town 
for the benefit of the school or schools of the district. The trustees 
of the district shall, at the expense of the district, provide a suitable 
box in which the ballots shall be deposited as they are received. 
Such ballots shall contain the names of the persons voted for, and 
shall designate the office for which each one is voted, and such 
ballots may be either written or printed, or partly written and 
partly printed. The inspectors, immediately after the close of 
the polls shall proceed to canvass the votes. They shall first 
count the ballots to determine if they tally with the number of 
names recorded by the clerk. If they exceed that number enough 
ballots shall be withdrawn to make them correspond. Said in- 
spectors shall count the Azotes and announce the result. The per- 
son or persons having a majority of the votes respectively for the 
several offices shall be elected, and the clerk shall record the result 
of such ballot and election as announced by the inspectors. When- 
ever the time for holding such election as aforesaid shall pass with- 
out such election being held in any such district, a special election 
shall be called by the trustees or clerk, and if no such election be 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 4I 

TITLE 7 

called by the trustees or clerk within 20 days after such time shall 
have passed, the school commissioner or the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction may order an inhabitant of such district to give 
notice of such election in the manner provided in the second sec- 
tion of this title; and the officials elected at such special election ^^^^5^^^^'^^^°^- 
shall hold their respective offices only until the next annual elec- ^'^°'"®^* 
tion, and until their successors are elected and shall have qualified, 
as in this act provided. All disputes concerning the validitv of Election dis- 

^ pi.ltes, how 

any such election, or of any votes cast thereat, or of any of the acts decided 
of the inspectors or clerk, shall be referred to the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, whose decision in the matter shall be final. 
Such Superintendent ma}^ in his discretion, order a new election 
in any district. 

The foregoing provision shall not apply to school districts in Limitation of 
cities, nor to union free school districts whose limits correspond provisions 
with those of an incorporated village, nor to any school district 
organized under a special act of the Legislature, in which the time, 
manner and form of the election of district officers shall be different 
from that prescribed for the election of officers in common school 
districts, organized under the general law, nor to any of the school 
districts in the counties of Richmond, Suffolk, Chenango, West- 
chester, Warren, Erie and St Lawrence. 

ARTICLE 2 
Of district schoolhouses and sites 
§16 No schoolhouse shall be built so as to stand, in whole or in i-"cation of 

"^ .... schoolhouses 

part, upon the division line of any two towns. 

'§17 No schoolhouse shall hereafter be erected in anv citv of Approval of 

" ' - - plans by Com- 

the third class or in any incorporated village or school district of^^sionerof 
this state, and no addition to a school building in any such place 
shall hereafter be erected the cost of which shall exceed $500, until 
the plans and specifications for the same shall have been sub- 
mitted to the Commissioner of Education and his approval indorsed 
thereon. Such plans and specifications shall show in detail the 
ventilation, heating and lighting of such buildings. Such Com- 
missioner of Education shall not approve any plans for the erection 
of any school building or addition thereto imless the same shall 
provide at least 15 square feet of floor space and 200 cubic feet of 
air space for each pupil to be accommodated in each stud}^ or 
recitation room therein, and no such plans shall be approved by 
him unless provision is made therein for assuring at least 30 cubic 



I As amended by section i, chapter 281, laws of 1004. 



42 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



feet of pure air every minute per pupil, and the facilities for exhaust- 
ing the foul or vitiated air therein shall be positive and independent 
of atmospheric changes. No tax vo':ed by a district meeting or 
other competent authority in any such city, village or school dis- 
; trict exceeding the sum of $500, shall be levied by the trustees until 

I the Commissioner of Education shall certify that the plans and 

specifications for the same comply with the provisions of this act. 
1 All s.choolhouses for which plans and detailed statements shall be 

filed and approved, as required by this act, shall have all halls, 
doors, stairways, seats, passageways and aisles and all lighting and 
heating appliances and apparatus arranged to facilitate egress in 
cases of fire or accident and to afford the requisite and proper ac- 
commodations for public protection in such oases. All exit doors 
shall open outwardly, and shall, if double doon; be used, be fastened 
with movable bolts operated simultaneously by one handle from the 
inner face of the door. No staircase shall be constructed with 
winder steps in lieu of a platform, but shall be constructed with 
straight runs, changes in direction being made by platforms. No 
door shall open immediately upon a flight of stairs, but a landing 
I at least the width of the door shall be provided between such 

stairs and such doorway. 
Levy and '§i8 Whenever a majority of the inhabitants of any school 

taxin hi"taii- district entitled to vote, to be ascertained b}^ taking and record- 
favorabie°vote iug the aycs and noes of such inhabitants attending and voting 
at any annual, special or adjourned school district meeting, legally 
called or held, shall determine that the sum proposed and provided 
for in the last preceding section shall be raised by instalments, it 
shall be the duty of the trustees of such district, and they are 
hereby authorized to cause the same to be raised, levied and col- 
lected in equal instalments in the same manner and with the like 
authority that other school taxes are raised, levied and collected, 
and to make out their tax list and warrant for the collection of such 
instalments, with interest thereon, as they become payable, accord- 
ing to the vote of the said inhabitants ; but the payment or collec- 
tion of the last instalment shall not be extended beyond 20 years 
from the time such vote was taken; and no vote to levy any such 
tax shall be reconsidered except at an adjourned annual or special 
meeting, to be held within 30 days thereafter, and a like majority 
shall be required for reconsideration as that by which tax was 
Issue of bonds Originally imposed. For the purpose of giving effect to these pro- 
visions, trustees are hereby authorized, whenever a tax shall have 



Reconsidera- 
tion of vote 



lAs amended by section i, chapter 274, laws of 1895. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 43 

TITLE 7 

been voted to be collected in instalments for the purpose of build- 
ing a new schoolhouse or an addition to a schoolhouse, to borrow 
so much of the sum voted as may be necessary, at a rate of interest 
not exceeding 6 per centum, and to issue bonds or other evidences , 

of indebtedness therefor, which shall be a charge upon the district 
and be paid at maturity, and which shall not be sold below par. 
Due notice of the time and place of the sale of such bonds shall be Notice of 
given at least 10 days prior thereto. It shall be the duty of the 
trustees or the person or persons having charge of the issue or pay- 
ment of such indebtedness, to transmit a statement thereof to the 
clerk of the board of supervisors of the county in which such in- 
debtedness is created, annually, on or before the first day of 
November. 

§19 So long as a district shall remain unaltered, the site of a change of 
schoolhouse owned bv it, upon which there is a schoolhouse erected of schooi- 

' . house 

or in process of erection, shall not be changed, nor such school- 
house be removed, unless by the consent, in writing, of the school 
commissioner having jurisdiction; nor with such consent, unless 
a majority of all the legal voters of said district present and voting, 
to be ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and noes, at 
a special meeting called for that purpose, shall adopt a written 
resolution designating such new site, and describing such new 
site by metes and bounds. 

S20 Whenever the site of a schoolhouse shall have been changed, Saie of 

. . . . . & ' former 

as herein provided, the inhabitants of a district entitled to vote, sites and 

buildings 

lawfully assembled at any district meeting, shall have power, 

by a majority of the votes of those present, to direct the sale of 

the former site or lot, and the buildings thereon and appurtenances 

or any part thereof, at such price and vipon such terms as they 

shall deem proper; and kny deed duly executed by the trustees validity 

of such district, or a majority of them, in pursuance of such direc-° 

tion, shall be valid and effectual to pass all the estate or interest 

of such school district in the premises, and when a credit shall 

be directed to be given upon such sale for the consideration money, Security for 

or any part thereof, the trustees are hereby authorized to take money 

in their corporate name such security by bond and mortgage, or 

otherwise, for the payment thereof, as they shall deem best, and 

shall hold the same as a corporation, and account therefor to ; 

their successors in office and to the district, in the manner they ' 

are now required by law to account for moneys received by them ; 

and the trustees of any such district for the time being may, in Recovery of 

their name of ofhce, sue for and recover the moneys due and ™c!^^^^ '^^^' 

unpaid upon any security so taken by them or their predecessors. 



44 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Disposition 
of proceeds 



§21 All moneys arising from any sale made in pursuance ot 
the last preceding section, shall be applied to the expenses incurred 
in procuring a new site, and in removing or erecting thereon a 
schoolhouse, and improving and furnishing such site and house, 
and their appendages, so far as such application shall be neces- 
sary; and the surplus, if any, shall be devoted to the purchase 
of school apparatus and the support of the school, as the inhabi- 
tants at any annual meeting shall direct. 



Eligibility to 
office 



Qualifications 
of district 
o fficers 



Terms of 
office 



Expiration of 
terms of first 
trustees 



Number of 
trustees, how 
fixed 



Annual 
election 



Reduction of 
number 



ARTICLE 3 

Of the qualification, election and terms of office of district officers, 
and of vacancies in such offices 

§22 No school commissioner or supervisor is eligible to the 
office of trustee, and no trustee can hold the office of district clerk, 
collector, treasurer or librarian. 

§23 Every district officer must be a resident of his district, 
and qualified to vote at its meetings. No person shall be eligible 
to hold any school district office who can not read and write. 

§24 From one annual meeting to the next is a year within the 
meaning of the following provisions: The term of office of a sole 
trustee of a district is one year. The full term of a joint trustee 
is three years, but a joint trustee may be elected for one or two 
years, as herein provided. The term of office of all other district 
officers is one year. Every district officer shall hold his office, 
unless removed during his term of office, until his successor shall 
be elected or appointed. 

§25 The terms of all officers elected at the first meeting of a 
newly created district shall expire on the first Tuesday of August, 
next thereafter. 

§26 On the first Tuesday of August next after the erection of 
a district, at its first annual meeting, the electors shall determine, 
by resolution, whether the district shall have one or three trustees; 
and if they resolve to have three trustees, shall elect the three 
for one, two and three years, respectively, and shall designate 
by their votes for which term each is elected; thereafter in such 
district, one trustee shall be elected at each annual meeting to 
fill the office of the outgoing trustee. The electors of any dis- 
trict having three trustees, shall have power to decide by reso- 
lution, at any annual meeting, whether the district shall have a 
sole trustee or three trustees, and if they resolve to have a sole 
trustee, the trustee or trustees in office shall continue in office 
until their term or terms of office shall expire, and no election 



CONSOLIDxVTED SCHOOL LAW 45 

t;itlb 7 

of a trustee shall be had in the district until the offices of such 
trustee or trustees shall become vacant by the expiration of their 
terms of office or otherwise, and thereafter but one trustee shall 
be elected for said district, until the electors of a district having increase of 
decided to have but one trustee shall determine at an annual"^™ ^^ 
meeting, by a two thirds vote of the legal voters present thereat, 
to have three trustees; in which case they shall, upon the adop- 
tion of such resolution, proceed to elect three trustees or such 
number as may be necessary to form a board of three trustees, 
in the same manner as provided in this section for the election 
of three trustees at the first annual meeting after the erection 
of a district; and thereafter in such district, one trustee shall 
be elected for three years, at each annual meeting, to fill the office 
of the outgoing trustee. 

§27 It shall be the duty of the district clerk, or of any person Notice to per- 

sons clcctGcl 

who shall act as clerk at any district meeting, when any officer 

shall be elected, forthwith to give the person elected notice thereof 

in writing; and such person shall be deemed to have accepted Acceptance. 

the office, unless, within five days after the service of such notice, of office" 

he shall file his written refusal with the clerk. The presence of 

any such person at the meeting which elects him to office, shall 

be deemed a sufficient notice to him of his election. 

§28 The collector or treasurer vacates his office by not exe- Office of 

., - ^ . collector or 

cutmg a bond to the trustee or trustees, as hereinafter required treasurer 

., , T. ' v/hen vacated 

and the trustee or trustees may supply the vacancy. 

§29 In case the office of a trustee shall be vacated by his death Vacancies in 

., . ., IP ,1.. ' office of trustee 

refusal to serve, incapacity, removal from the district, or by his 
being removed from the office, or in an}^ other manner, and the 
vacancy be not supplied by a district meeting within one month 
thereafter, the school commissioner of the commissioner district, 
within which the schoolhouse or principal schoolhouse of the 
district is situated, ma}?-, by writing, under his hand, appoint a 
competent person to fill it. If such vacancy is supplied by a 
district meeting, it shall be for the balance of the unexpired term; 
but when such vacancy is supplied b}'- appointment by a school 
commissioner it shall be only until the next annual meeting of 
the district. 

§30 A trustee who publicly declares that he will not accept Neglect of 
or serve in the office of trustee, or who refuses or neglects to attend fukl to serve 
three successive meetings of the board, of which he is duly noti- ^'^'^^^^^ ° 
fied, without rendering a good and valid excuse therefor to the 
other trustees, or trustee, where there are but two, vacates his 
office by refusal to serve. 



46 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE 7 

Vacancies in 
office of clerk, 
collector or 
treasurer 



Filing and 
notice of ap- 
pointment 



Penalty for 
refusal to 
serve or 
neglect of duly 



Acceptance of 
resignation 



Filing of same 
bars recovery 
of penalty 



§31 Anv vacancy in the office of clerk, collector or treasurer, 
may be supplied by appointment under the hands of the trustee 
or trustees of the district, or a majority of them, and the appointees 
shall hold their respective offices until the next annual meeting 
of the district, and until others are elected and take their places. 

§32 Every appointment to fill a vacancy shall be forthwith 
filed by the commissioner or trustees making it, in the office of the 
district clerk, who shall immediately give notice of the appointment 
to the person appointed. 

§33 Every person chosen or appointed to a school district office, 
who being duly qualified to fill the same, shall refuse to serve 
therein, shall forfeit $5; and every person so chosen or appointed, 
who, not having refused to accept the office, shall wilfully neg- 
lect or refuse to perform any duty thereof, shall by such neg- 
lect or refusal vacate his office and shall forfeit the sum of $10. 
These penalties are for the benefit of the school or schools of the 
district. But the school commissioner of the commissioner dis- 
trict wherein any such person resides may accept his written 
resignation of the office, and the filing of such resignation and 
acceptance in the office of the district clerk shall be a bar to the 
recovery of either penalty in this section mentioned; or such resig- 
nation may be made to and accepted by a district meeting. 



Duties of 
clerk 



Record of 
proceedings 
and reports 

Notice of 
meetings 



Notice to per- 
sons elected 
or appointed 



ARTICLE 4 
Of the duties of the district clerk and treasurer 
§34 It shall be the duty of the clerk of each school district: 

1 To record the proceedings of all meetings of the voters of his 
district in a book to be provided for that purpose by the district, 
and to enter therein true copies of all reports made by the trustee 
or trustees to the school commissioner. 

2 To give notice, in the manner prescribed by the sixth section 
of this title, or by the inhabitants, pursuant to such section, of 
the time and place of holding special district meetings called by 
the trustee or trustees. 

3 To affix a notice in writing of the time and place of any ad- 
journed meeting, when the meeting shall have been adjourned for 
a longer time than one month, in at least five of the most public 
places of such district, at least five days before the time appointed 
for such adjourned meeting. 

4 To give the like notice of every annual district meeting. 

5 To give notice immediately to every person elected or ap- 
pointed to office of his election or appointment ; and also to report 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 47 

TITLE 7 

to the town clerk of the town in which the schoolhouse of his dis- 
trict is situated, the names and postoffice addresses of such offi- Report of 
cers, under a penalty of $5 for neglect in each instance. addresses 

6 To notify the trustee or trustees of every resignation duly ac - Notice of 

. . resignations 

cepted by the school commissioner. 

7 To keep and preserve all records, books and papers belonging Preservation 

_, r 1 3-i^d delivering 

to his office and to deliver the same to his successor, ror a reiusalof records 
or neglect so to do, he shall forfeit $50 for the benefit of the school 
or schools of the district, to be recovered by the trustees. 

8 In case his district shall be dissolved, to obey the order of the Deposhing of 
school commissioner or commissioners as to depositing the books, j^issoived 
papers and records of his office in the town clerk's office. 

9 To attend all meetings of the board of trustees when notified, Attendance 
and keep a record of their proceedings in a book provided for that meetings 
purpose. 

10 To call special meetings of the inhabitants whenever all the Caiimg^sjpeciai 
trustees of the district shall have vacated their office. 

11 The records, books and papers belonging or appertaining to Records etc. 
the office of the clerk of any school district, as in this section men- g[s°^fcts^ "^ 
tioned, are hereby declared to be the property of said school dis- 
trict respectively, and shall be open for inspection by any qualified Open to 

. . ., inspection 

voter of the district at all reasonable hours, and any such voter 
may make copies thereof. 

^T,K The treasurer of a school district shall be the custodian of Treasurer, 

11- 1 1 • • r 1 1 • 1 ^is duties 

all moneys belonging to the district from whatever source derived, 

and it is hereby made the duty of the trustee or trustees of such Trustees to 

pay over 

district to pay to such treasurer any and all moneys that may come moneys to 

into his or their hands belonging to such district derived from sales 

of personal or real property of the district, from insurance policies, 

from bonds of the district issued and sold by him or them, or from 

any other source whatsoever. The collector of such district shall Collector to 

-^ . pay over 

pay over to such treasurer all moneys collected by him under and moneys 
by virtue of any tax list and warrant issued and delivered to him. 
Such treasurer is hereby authorized and empowered to demand and May demand 
receive from the supervisor of the town in which such school dis- pubiicmOTeys 
trict is situated all public money apportioned to said district. It 
shall be the duty of such treasurer within 10 days after notice of Treasurer's 
his election to execute and deliver to the trustee or trustees of such ^°" 
district his bond in such sum as shall have been fixed by a district 
meeting or as such trustee or trustees shall require, with at least 
two sureties to be approved by such trustee or trustees, condi- 
tioned to faithfully discharge the duties of his office, and to well 



48 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



and truly account for all moneys received by him, and to pay over 
any sum or sums of money remaining in his hands to his successor 
in office. Such bond when so executed and approved in writing 
by such trustee or trustees shall be filed with the district clerk. 
No moneys shall be paid out or disbursed by such treasurer except 
upon the written orders of a sole trustee or a majority of the trus- 
Report of tccs. Such trcasurcr shall, whenever required by such trustee or 

receipts and 

disbursements trustccs, rcport to him Or them a detailed statement of the moneys 
received by him, and his disbursements, and at the annual meeting 
of such district he shall render a full account of all moneys received 
by him and from what source and when received, and all disburse- 
ments made by him and to whom and the dates of such disburse- 
ments respectively, and the balance of moneys remaining in his 
hands. 

ARTICLE 5 
Of pupils and teachers 

§36 Common schools in the several school districts of this state 
shall be free to all persons over 5 and under 2 1 years of age residing 
in the district as hereinafter provided; but nonresidents of a dis- 
trict, if otherwise competent, may be admitted into the school of 
a district, with the written consent of the trustees, or of a majority 
of them, upon such terms as the trustees shall prescribe; provided 
that if such nonresident pupils, their parents or guardians, shall 
be liable to be taxed for the support of said schools in the district, 
on account of owning property therein, the amount of any such 
tax paid by a nonresident pupil, his parent or guardian, during the 
current school year, shall be deducted from the charge for tuition. 

§3 '7 If a school district include a portion of an Indian reserva- 
tion, whereon a school for Indian children has been established by 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and is taught, the school 
of the district is not free to Indian children resident in the district 
or on the reservation, nor shall they be admitted to such school 
except by the permission of the Superintendent. 

'§38 No teacher is qualified, within the meaning of this act, who 
does not possess an unannuUed diploma granted by a state normal 
school, or an unrevoked and unannuUed certificate of qualification 
given by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, or an unexpired 
certificate of qualification given by the school commissioner within 
whose district such teacher is employed. No person shall be 
deemed to be qualified who is under the age of 18 years. 

>As amended by section 6, chapter 264, laws of 1896. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 49 

TITLE 7 

§39 No part of the school moneys apportioned to a district can Payment to 

1 1-1 -11 1-1 1 ri unqualified 

be apphed or permitted to be aphed to the payment of the wages teachers 

. , . „ , ^ , . , prohibited 

of an unquahned teacher, nor can his or her wages, or any part of 
them, be collected by a district tax. 

§40 Any trustee who applies, or directs, or consents to the ap- Penalty for 
plication of any such money to the payment of an unqualified 
teacher's wages, thereby commits a misdemeanor; and any fine 
imposed upon him therefor shall be for the benefit of the common 
schools of the district. 

§41 Teachers shall keep, prepare and enter in the books provided Teachers to 
for that purpose, the school lists and accounts of attendance here- attendance 
inafter mentioned, and shall be responsible for their safe-keeping 
and delivery to the clerk of the district at the close of their en- 
gagements or terms. 

ARTICLE 6 

Of trustees, their powers and duties; and of school taxes and annual 

reports 

§42 The trustee or trustees of every school district, whether there Board of 
is one, or are three trustees as hereinbefore provided, shall consti- *™^^^^^ 
tute a board for each of said districts respectively, and each of said 
boards are hereby severally created bodies corporate. 

•§43 All property which is now vested in, or shall hereafter be Property to 
transferred to the trustee or trustees of a district, for the use of corporation 
schools in the district, shall be held by him or them as a corpora- 
tion. 

§44 A board consisting of a sole trustee of the district shall have Sole trustee, 

his powers 

all the powers, and be subject to all the duties, liabilities and penal- and duties 
ties conferred and imposed by law upon or against a board of three 
trustees or any trustee or trustees, or a majority of the trustees of 
said board having three trustees of a district. 

§45 The trustee or trustees of a district compose a board, and Powers to 

. be exercised 

every power committed to said trustees by this act must be exer- by board 
cised by the board. The board must meet for the transaction of 
business in accordance with notice of time and place. In a board £°"*='f^t'°"^ 
composed of three trustees when two only meet to deliberate upon trustees valid 
any matter or matters, and the third, if notified, does not attend, 
or the three meet and deliberate thereon, the conclusion of two Minutes 

1 11-1 T ■ 1 • thereof 

upon the matter, and their order, act or proceeding m relation evidence 
thereto, shall be as valid as though it were the conclusion, order, 
act or proceeding of the three; and a recital of the two in their 
minute of the conclusion, act or proceeding, or in their order, act 
or proceeding of the fact of such notice, or of such meeting and de- 



50 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



liberation, shall be conclusive evidence thereof. A meeting of the 
board may be ordered by any member thereof, by giving not less 
than 24 hours notice of the same. 

§46 While there is one vacancy in the office of trustee, the two 
trustees have all the powers and are subject to all the duties and 
habilities of the three. And while there are two such vacancies, 
the trustee in office shall have all the power and be subject to all 
the duties and liabilities of the three, as though he were a sole 
trustee. When a vacancy or vacancies shall occur in the office of 
trustee, the first act of the board shall be to call a special meeting 
of the district to supply such vacancy or vacancies. 

§47 It shall be the duty of the trustee or trustees of every school 
district, and they shall have power: 

1 To call special meetings of the inhabitants of such districts 
whenever they shall deem it necessary and proper. 

2 To give notice of special, annual and adjourned meetings in 
the manner prescribed in the sixth section of this title, if there be 
no clerk of the district, or be he absent or incapable of acting, or 
shall refuse to act. 

3 To make out a tax list of every district tax voted by any such 
meeting, or authorized by law, containing the names of all the tax- 
able inhabitants residing in the district at the time of making out 
the list, and the amount of tax payable by each inhabitant, set 
opposite to his name, as directed in the seventh article of this 
title. 

4 To annex to such tax list a warrant, directed to the collector 
of the district, for the collection of the sums in such list mentioned. 

5 To purchase or lease a site or sites for the district school'house 
or schoolhouses, as designated by a meeting of the district and to 
build, or purchase such schoolhouse or houses as may be so desig- 
nated; and to hire rooms or buildings for such school purposes, and 
to keep in repair and furnish such schoolhouse or houses, rooms 
or buildings with necessary fuel, furniture, school apparatus, heat- 
ing apparatus and appendages, and to pay the expense thereof 
by tax but such expense shall not exceed $50 in any one year, unless 
authorized by the district or by law. 

6 To have the custody and safe-keeping of the district school- 
house or houses, their sites and appurtenances. 

7 When thereto authorized by a meeting of the district to insure 
the schoolhouse or houses, and their furniture, and the school ap- 
paratus in some company created by or under the laws of this state, 
and to comply with the conditions of the policy, and raise the pre- 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 5I 

TITLE 7 

miums by a district tax. If the district meeting shall neglect to 
make such authorization, it shall be the duty of the trustee or trus- 
tees to insure such schoolhouse or houses, and their furniture and 
school apparatus, and the premiums paid shall be raised by dis- 
trict tax. 

8 To insure the school library in such a company in a sum fixed insurance 

, -.. . , .- .'" ^.. of librarv 

by a district meeting, and to raise the premium by a district tax, 
and comply with the conditions of the policy. 

^9 To contract with and employ all teachers in the district school Employment 
or schools as are qualified under the provisions of this ace, and to 
designate the number of teachers to be employed; to determine the 
rate of compensation to be paid to each teacher and the term of 
the employment of each teacher, respectively, and to determine 
the terms of school to be held in their respective districts during 
each school year; but no person who is related to any trustee or 
trustees by blood or marriage shall be so employed, except with 
the approval of two thirds of the voters of such district present Term of 

. . employment 

and voting upon the question at an annual or special meeting of 
the district. Nor shall the trustees of any school district make 
any contract for the employment of a teacher for more than one 
year in advance. Nor shall any trustee or trustees, emplov any 
teacher for a shorter time than lo weeks imless for the purpose of 
filling out an unexpired term of school. Nor shall any trustee or Dismissal of 

" . teachers 

trustees contract with any teacher whose certificate of qualifica- 
tion shall not cover a period at least as long as that covered bv the 
contract of service. Nor shall any teacher be dismissed in the 
course of a term of employment, except for reasons which, if ap- 
pealed to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, shall be held 
to be sufficient cause for such dismissal. Any failure on the part Revocation of 

C tT t ifl C £L t G S 

of a teacher to complete an agreement to teach a term of school 
without good reason therefor shall be deemed sufficient ground for 
the revocation of the teacher's certificate. Any person employed claim for 
in disregard of the foregoing provisions shall have no claim for 
wages against the district, but may enforce the specific contract 
made against the trustee or trustees consenting to such employ- 
ment as individuals. 

-10 All trustees of school districts who shall emplov anv teacher '^°"*'"^'^*^ ^°'' 

^ ■' - employment 

to teach in any of said districts shall, at the time of such employ- °^ *^^'=^^''s 
ment, make and deliver to such teacher, or cause to be made and 
delivered, a contract in writing, signed by said trustee or trustees, 
or by some person duly authorized by said trustee or trustees to 

JAs amended by section p, chapter 264, laws of 1896. 
2As amended by section 8, chapter 264, laws of 1896. 



52 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Pay of 
teachers, 
when due 



Rules 



Instruction 
of pupils in 
physiology 
and hygiene 



Payment of 

teachers 

wages 



Order for 

money, when 
not to issue 



Misdemeanor 



District tax 
for teachers 
wages 



Division of 
public moneys 
for each term 



represent him or them in the premises in which the details of the 
agreement between the parties, and particularly the length of the 
term of employment, the amovmt of compensation and the time 
or times when such compensation shall be due and payable shall 
be clearl}^ and definitely set forth. The pay of an}^ teacher em- 
ployed in any of the school districts of this state shall be due and 
pa^-able at least as often as at the end of each calendar month of 
the term of employment. 

1 1 To establish rules for the government and discipline of the 
schools in their respective districts; and to prescribe the course of 
studies to be pursued in such schools. Provision shall be made for 
instructing pupils in all schools supported by public money or under 
state control, in physiology and hygiene, with special reference to 
the effect of alcoholic drinks, stimulants and narcotics upon the 
human system. 

12 To pay, towards the wages of such teachers as are qualified, 
the public moneys apportioned to the district legally applicable 
thereto, by giving them orders therefor on the supervisor, or on 
the collector or treasurer of such district when duly qualified to 
receive and disburse the same, and to collect, as herein provided, 
the residue of such wages by direct tax. But no trustee shall 
issue any order or draw a draft upon the supervisor, collector or 
treasurer for any money unless there shall be at the time a suffi- 
cient amount of money in the hands of such supervisor, collector 
or treasurer belonging to the district, to meet such order or draft, 
and a violation of this provision by any trustee shall be a mis- 
demeanor and punishable as such. If, at the time of the employ- 
ment of a qualified teacher for a term of school, there shall be no 
public moneys in the hands of the supervisor, collector or treas- 
urer applicable to the payment of teachers wages, or if there shall 
not be a sufficient amount in the hands of either or all such offi- 
cers to enable the trustee or trustees to pay the teachers wages as 
they fall due, and the district meeting has failed or neglected 
to authorize a tax to pay the same, the trustee or trustees of such 
school district are hereby authorized and empowered, and it 
shall be their duty, to collect by district tax an amount sufficient 
to pay the wages of such teacher for such term, but not to exceed 
four months in advance. 

13 To divide such public moneys apportioned to the district, 
whenever authorized by a vote of their district into two or more 
portions for each year; to assign and apply one of such portions 
to each term during which a school shall be kept in such district, 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 53 

TITLE 7 

for the payment of teachers wages during such term; and to Collection of 
collect the residue of such wages not paid by the proportion of wlges\)y tax 
public money allotted for that purpose, by district tax as herein 
provided. 

14 To draw upon the supervisor, the collector or treasurer, when Drawing of 
duly qualified to receive and disburse the same, for the school "^""'^^'^ 
and library moneys, by written orders signed by the sole trustee, 

or where there are three trustees, signed by a majority of said 
trustees as prescribed by subdivisions i and 2 of section 4 of title 
3 of this act. 

1 5 After having paid toward the wages of such teachers as are Tax for 
qualified, the public moneys of the district legally applicable wages 
thereto, by giving them orders on the supervisor, collector or 
treasurer therefor, to collect the residue of such wages by a dis- 
trict tax, or, if the same shall have been already collected, to 

give such teacher an order on the collector or treasurer for the Orders on 
balance of his or her wages still remaining unpaid. But it shall treasurer 
be a misdemeanor, and punishable as such, for a trustee or trus- 
tees to give an order upon the collector or treasurer unless there When 
shall be in the hands of said collector or treasurer, at the time, 
sufficient money belonging to the district to meet the same. 

§48 The trustee or trustees in the several school districts shall Water-ciosets 
provide suitable and convenient water-closets or privies for each 
of the schools under their charge, at least, two in number, which 
shall be entirely separated each from the other, and having sep- 
arate means of access, and the approaches thereto shall be sep- 
arated by a substantial close fence not less than seven feet in 
hight. It shall be the duty of the trustee or trustees aforesaid 
to keep the same in a clean and wholesome condition, and a fail- 
ure to comply with the foregoing provisions of this section on 
the part of such trustee or trustees, shall be sufficient ground Expense and 
for his or their removal from office, and for withholding from 
the district any share of the public moneys of the state. Any 
expense incurred by such trustee or trustees in carrying out the 
requirements of this act shall be a charge upon the district, when 
such expense shall have been approved by the school commis- 
sioner of the district within which the school district is located, 
and a tax may be levied therefor without a vote of the district. 

§49 All school buildings situated in the school districts of the stairways on 

•1 •• i-TvT xri iT->i 1-1 'Jntside of 

state, other than m the cities of New York and Brooklyn, which buildings 
are more than two stories high, shall have properly constructed 
stairways on the outside thereof, with suitable doorways leading 



54 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Trustees to 
cause same 
to be con- 
structed, etc. 



Repairs to 
schoolhouses 
and apparatus 



Outbuildings 



Nuisances 



Fuel etc. 



Cleaning rooms 



Janitor's work 



Account books 



Dictionaries, 
school appar- 
atus, etc. 

Temporary 
or branch 
schoolrooms 



thereto, from each story above the first, for use in case of fire. 
Such stairways shall be kept in good order and free from obstruc- 
tion. It shall be the duty of the trustee or trustees having charge 
of said school buildings in school districts to cause such stair- 
ways to be constructed and maintained, and the reasonable and 
proper cost thereof, shall, in each case, be a legal charge upon the 
district, and shall be raised by tax, as other moneys are raised 
for school purposes. 

§50 The trustee or trustees of each school district shall keep 
each of the schoolhouses under his or their charge, and its furni- 
ture, school apparatus and appendages, in necessary and proper 
repair, and make the same reasonably comfortable for use, but 
not at an expense of exceeding $50 in any one year, except by a 
vote of the district. Said trustee or trustees shall also expend a 
sum not exceeding $50, in the erection of necessary outbuildings, 
when the district is wholly unprovided with such buildings, upon 
the direction of the school commissioner in whose district such 
schoolhouse is situated, or of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion. Said trustee or trustees shall also make any repairs and 
abate any nuisances, pursuant to the direction of the school com- 
missioner, as hereinbefore provided, and shall provide fuel, stoves 
or other heating apparatus, pails, brooms and other implements 
necessary to keep the schoolhouse or houses and the schoolroom 
or rooms clean, and make them reasonably comfortable for use^ 
when no provision has been made therefor by a vote of the dis- 
trict, or the sum voted by the district for said purposes shall have 
proved insufficient. Said trustee or trustees shall also provide for 
building fires and cleaning the schoolroom or rooms, and for jani- 
tor work generally in and about the schoolhouse or houses, and 
pay for such service such reasonable sum as may be agreed upon 
therefor. The}^ shall provide the bound blank books for the 
entering of their accounts and the keeping of the school lists, 
the records of the district and the proceedings of district and 
trustee meetings, and they m.ay expend in the purchase of dic- 
tionary, maps, globes or other school apparatus, a sum not exceed- 
ing $25 in any one year. Whenever it shall be necessary for the 
due accommodation of the children of the district, by reason of 
any considerable number of said children residing in portions of 
said districts remote from the schoolhouse in said district, thereby 
rendering it difficult for them in inclement weather and in winter 
to attend school at such schoolhouse, or by reason of the room 
or rooms in said schoolhouse being overcrowded, or for any other 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 55 

TITLE 7 

sufficient reason the due accommodation of said children can not 
be made in said schoolhouse, they shall establish temporary or 
branch school or schools in such place or places in said district 
as shall best accommodate such children, and hire any room or 
rooms for the keeping of said temporary or branch school or schools* 
and fit up and furnish said room or rooms in a suitable manner 
for conducting such school or schools therein. Any expenditure District 

charges 

made or liability incurred m pursuance of this section shall be a 
charge upon the district. 

Sqi When trustees are required or authorized by law, or by aM^yraise 

"^ '■ -^ . . -^ any legal sum 

vote of their district, to incur any expense for such district, and by tax 
when any expenses incurred by them are made, by express provi- 
sion of law, a charge upon such district, they may raise the amount 
thereof by tax in the same manner as if the definite sum to be 
raised had been voted by a district meeting. 

§■52 The trustees, or any one of them, if not forbidden bvUseof 

" schoolhouse 

another, may freely permit the schoolhouse, when not in use for by others 
the district school, to be used by persons assembling therein for 
the purpose of giving and receiving instruction in any branch of 
education or learning, or in the science or practice of music. 

§1;^ They shall procure two bound blank books for the district Account books 

""" -' ^ . to be kept 

and, when necessary, others in their places. In one of them, at 
or before each annual district meeting, they shall enter at large 
and sign a statement of all movable property belonging to the 
district, and their accounts of all moneys received or drawn for 
or paid by them, and they shall deliver this book to their suc- 
cessors. In the other, the teachers shall enter the names of the Teachers 

records 

pupils attending school, their ages, the names of the persons who 
send them, and the number of days each pupil attends; and, 
also, the facts and the dates of each inspection of the school by 
the school commissioner or other official visitor, and any other 
facts, and in such form as the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion shall require; and each teacher shall, by his oath or affir- Verification 

ot entries 

mation, verify his entries in such book, and the entries shall con- 
stitute the school lists from which the average daily attendance 
shall be determined; and such oath or affirmation may be taken 
by the district clerk, but without charge. Until the teacher 'Withholding 

'^ ot pay 

shall have so made and verified such entries, the trustees shall 
not draw on the supervisor, collector or treasurer for any portion 
of his or her wages. 

§54 If any portion of the moneys apportioned to the district ^°*i^'=**jo'^ 
shall not be paid by the supervisor, the collector or treasurer, withhe'd 



S6 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



tltLE ■} 



Annual report 
to districts 



Payment of 
balances to 
successors 



Neglect or 
refusal to 
account 



Suing of 

former 

trustees 



Annual report 
to commis- 
sioner 



Items of 
report 



Whole time 
school has 
been kept, etc. 



Amount of 
drafts for 
payments 



Upon the due requirement of the trustees, they shall forthwith 
notify the treasurer of the county, and the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, of the fact. 

§55 The trustees shall, once in each year, render to the dis- 
trict, at its annual district meeting, a just, full and true account 
in writing, mider their hands, of all moneys received by them 
respectively for the use of the district, or raised or collected by 
taxes, the preceding year, and of the manner in which the same 
shall have been expended, and showing to which of them an unex- 
pended balance, or any part thereof, is chargeable; and of all 
drafts or orders made by them upon the supervisor, collector, 
treasurer or other custodian of moneys of the district ; and a full 
Statement of all appeals, actions or suits and proceedings brought 
by or against them, and of every special matter touching the 
condition of the district, 

§56 An outgoing trustee shall forthwith pay, to his successor 
or any other trustee of the district in office, all unexpended 
moneys in his hands belonging to the district. 

§57 By a wilful neglect or refusal to render such account, a 
trustee also forfeits any unexpired term of his office, and becomes 
liable to the trustees for any district moneys in his hands. 

§58 The trustees in office shall sue for and recover any district 
moneys in the hands of any former trustee, or of his personal 
representatives, and apply them to the. use of the district. 

§59 The trustees of each school district shall, on the first day 
of August in each year, make to the school commissioner a report 
ii writing for the year ending July 31 preceding. In ever}^ case 
t'le trustee or trustees shall sign and certify to said report and 
deliver it to the clerk of the town, in which the schoolhouse of 
the district is situated; and every such report shall certify: 

1 The whole time any school has been kept in their district 
during the year ending on the day previous to the date of such 
report, and distinguishing what portion of the time such school 
has been kept by qualified teachers, and the whole number of days, 
including holidays, in which the school was taught by qualified 
teachers. 

2 The amount of their drafts upon the supervisor, collector or 
treasurer for the payment of teachers wages during such year, and 
the amount of their drafts upon him for the purchase of books 
and school apparatus during such year, and the manner in which 
such moneys have beeri expended, 



CONSOLIDATED SCPIOOL LAW 57 

TITLE 7 

3 The number of children taught in the district school or schools Attendance 
during such year by qualified teachers, and the sum of the days 
attendance of all such children upon the school. 

4 The number of children residing in the district on the 30th Number of 

^ ^ ^ children, 

day of Tune previous to the making of such report, and the names names of 

•> ^ " ^ . parents, etc. 

of the parents or other persons with whom such children did 
respectively reside, and the number of children residing with each. 

5 The number of vaccinated and un vaccinated children of Vaccination 
school age in their respective districts. 

6 The amount of monev paid for teachers wages, in addition Amount of 

'' _ payments 

to the public money paid therefor, the amount of taxes levied in and taxes 
said district for purchasing schoolhouse sites, for building, hiring, 
purchasing, repairing and insuring schoolhouses, for fuel, for 
school libraries, or for any other purpose allowed by law, and 
svich other information in relation to the schools and the district 
as the Superintendent of Public Instruction ma}^, from time to 
time, require. 

§60 The annual reports of trustees of school districts, of chil- children 

. included in 

dren residing in their district, shall include all over 5 and under reports 
21 years of age, who shall have been, on the 30th day of June 
last preceding the date of such report, actually in the district, 
comprising a part of the family of their parents or guardians or 
employers, if such parents, guardians or employers resided at the 
time in such district, although such residence was temporary; 
but such report shall not include children belonging to the family 
of any person who shall be an inhabitant of any other district 
in this state, in which such children may by law be included in 
the report of its trustees; nor any children who are supported 
at a county poorhouse or an orphan asylum; nor any Indian 
children residing on reservations where schools provided by law 
for their education are taught. 

§61 Where a school district lies in two or more counties, its Report of 
trustees shall make such an annual report for each part of it lying tricts 
in a different county, and file each in the office of the clerk of the 
town in which the part of the district to which it especially relates 
lies; and such report shall be in the form and contain all such 
special matters as the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall 
from time to time prescribe. 



58 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Assessment 
and tax list 
therefor 



Heading on 
tax list 



Taxes, how 
apportioned 
and assessed 



Land lying 
in one body 



Nonresident 
lands 



Personal estate 



Bank stock 



Valuations of 

taxable 

jjroperty 



ARTICLE 7 

Of the assessment of district taxes, and the collection of such taxes; 

and of the collector, his poivers, dtities and liabilities 

§62 Within 30 days after a tax shall have been voted by a 
district meeting, the trustees shall assess it, and make out the 
tax list therefor, and annex thereto their warrant for its collec- 
tion. But they may at the same time assess two or more taxes 
so voted, and any tax or taxes they are authorized to raise with- 
out such vote, and make out one tax list and one warrant for the 
collection of the whole. They shall also prefix to their tax list 
a heading showing for what purpose the different items of the tax 
are levied. 

^§63 School district taxes shall be apportioned by the trustees 
upon all real estate within the boundaries of the district which 
shall not be by law exempt from taxation, except as hereinafter 
provided, and such property shall be assessed to the person or 
persons, or corporation owning or possessing the same at the 
time such tax list shall be made out, but land lying in one body 
and occupied by the same person, either as owner or agent for 
the same principal, or as tenant under the same landlord, if 
assessed as one lot on the last assessment roll of the town after 
revision by the assessors, shall, though situated partly in two 
or more school districts, be taxable in that one of them in which 
such occupant resides. This rule shall not apply to land owned 
by nonresidents of the district, and which shall not be occupied 
by an agent, servant or tenant residing in the district. Such 
unoccupied real estate shall be assessed as nonresident, and a 
description thereof shall be entered in the tax list. The trustees 
shall also apportion the district taxes upon all persons residing 
in the district, and upon all corporations liable to taxation therein, 
for the personal estate owned by them and liable to taxation. 
They shall also apportion the same upon nonresident stockholders 
in banks or banking associations situated in their districts for 
the amount of stock owned by them therein, and upon individual 
bankers doing business in their district in accordance with the 
provisions of chapter 409 of the laws of 1882, as amended by 
sections 2, 3 and 4 of chapter 714 of the laws of 1892. 

^§64 The valuations of taxable property shall be ascertained, 
so far as possible, from the last assessment roll of the town, after 



also laws of 1905, chapter 



' See section 24 and 2$, article 2, of the tax law on page 
720, mortgage tax law. 

^Chapter 385, laws of 1904, relates to completion of assessment roll, and chapter 279, laws of 
1904 fixes Sep. 15 as date when assessment rolls must be filed in the office of town clerk. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 59 

TITLE 7 

revision by the assessors; and no person shall be entitled to any 
reduction in the valuation of such property, as so ascertained, 
unless he shall give notice of his claim to such reduction in writing 
to the trustees of the district before the tax list shall be made out. 

§6s Where such reduction shall be duly claimed and where the ^efjuction of 

" ^ - valuation 

valuation of taxable property can not be ascertained from the last 
assessment roll of the town, or where the valuation of such property 
shall have increased or diminished, since the last assessment roll 
of the town, or an error, mistake or omission on the part of the ^,^^^^''''-^^'°" 

•■^^ of valuations 

town assessors shall have been made in the description or valuation '^V-. -i°i"} 

^ districts 

of taxable property, the trustees shall ascertain the true value of 
the property to be taxed from the best evidence in their power, 
giving notice to the persons interested, and proceeding in the same 
manner as the town assessors are required by law to proceed in the 
valuation of taxable property, the hearing of grievances, and the 
revision of the town assessment roll. 

§66 When a district embraces parts of more than one town, it Duty of 

" ^ ' supervisor 

shall be the duty of the supervisors of such towns so in part em- 
braced and they are hereby directed, upon receiving a written 
notice from the trustee or trustees of such district, or from three 
or more persons liable to pay taxes upon real estate therein, to 
meet at a time and place to be named in such notice, which time 
shall not be less than five or more than lo days from the service 
thereof, and a place within the bounds of the towns so in part em- 
braced, and proceed to inquire and determine whether the valua- 
tion of real property upon the several assessment rolls of said 
towns are substantially just, as compared with each other, so far 
as said districts are concerned, and if ascertained not to be so, 
they shall determine the relative proportion of taxes that ought 
to be assessed upon the real property of the parts of such district Assessment 
lying in different towns, and the trustees of such district shall thereafter 
thereupon assess the proportion of any tax thereafter to be raised, 
according to the determination of such supervisors, until new 
assessment rolls of the town shall be perfected and filed, using the 
assessment rolls of the several towns to distribute the said propor- 
tion among the persons liable to be assessed for the same. In 
cases when such supervisors shall be unable to agree, they shall Provisions 

.... - , in case of 

summon a supervisor from some adjommg town, who shall unite nonagreement 
in such inquiring, and the finding of a majority shall be the deter- 
mination of such meeting. Such supervisors shall receive for their 
services $3 per day for each day actually employed which shall be Compensation 

, , . . "' of suDervisors 

a town charge upon their respective towns. 



6o 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Persons work- 
ing land on 
shares or in 
possession 
bv contract 



Nonresidents 
having agents, 
etc. on land 



Tenants 
paying tax 



Exemption of 
certain per- 
sons from 
taxation for 
schoolhouses 



Taxes on 

nonresident 

lands 



Incorporated 
companies etc 



§67 Any person working land under a contract for a share of 
the produce of such land, shall be deemed the possessor, so far as 
to render him liable to taxation therefor, in the district where such 
land is situate, and any person in possession of real property under 
a contract for the purchase thereof shall be liable to taxation therefor 
in the district where such real property is situate. 

§68 Every person owning or holding any real property within 
any school district, who shall improve and occupy the same by his 
agent or servant, shall, in respect to the liability of such property 
to taxation, be considered a taxable inhabitant of such district, in 
the same manner as if he actually resided therein. 

§69 Where any district tax, for the purpose of purchasing a site 
for a schoolhouse, or for purchasing or building, keeping in repair, 
or furnishing such schoolhouse with necessary fuel and appendages, 
shall be lawfully assessed, and paid by any person on account of 
any real property whereof he is only a tenant at will, or for three 
years, or for a less period of time, such tenant may charge the 
owner of such real estate with the amount of the tax so paid by him, 
unless some agreement to the contrary shall have been made by 
such tenant. 

§70 Every taxable inhabitant of a district who shall have been, 
within four years, set off from any other district, without his con- 
sent, and shall within that period, have actually paid in such other 
district, under a lawful assessment therein, a district tax for building 
a schoolhouse, shall be exempted by the trustees of the district where 
he shall reside, from the payment of any tax for building a school- 
house therein. 

§71 When any real estate within a district so liable to taxation 
shall not be occupied and improved by. the owner, his servant or 
agent and shall not be possessed by any tenant, the trustees of any 
district, at the time of making out any tax list by which any. tax 
shall be imposed thereon, shall make and insert in such tax list a 
statement and description of every such lot, piece or parcel of land 
so owned by nonresidents therein, in the same manner as required 
by law from town assessors in making out the assessment roll of 
their towns; and if any such lot is known to belong to an incor- 
porated company liable to taxation in such district, the name of 
such company shall be specified, and the value of such lot or piece 
of land shall be set down opposite to such description, which value 
shall be the same that was affixed to such lot or piece of land in the 
last assessment roll of the town ; and if the same was not sepa- 
ratelv valued in such roll, then it shall be valued in proportion to 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 6l 

TITLE 7 

the valuation which was affixed in the said assessment roll to the 
whole tract of which such lot or piece shall be part. 

§72 If any tax on real estate placed upon the tax list and duly ^^*^[^' ^°^^^^ 
delivered to the collector, or the taxes upon nonresident stock- ^^ collector 
holders in banking associations organized under the laws of Con- 
gress, shall be unpaid at the time the collector is required by law to 
return his warrant, he shall deliver to the trustees of the district 
an account of the taxes remaining due, containing a description of 
the lands upon which such taxes were unpaid as the same were 
placed upon the tax list, together with the amount of the tax so 
assessed, and upon making oath before any justice of the peace or 
judge of court of record, notary public or any other officer author- 
ized to administer oaths, that the taxes mentioned in any such 
accoiint remain unpaid, and that, after diligent efforts, he has been 
unable to collect the same, he shall be credited by said trustees 
with the amount thereof. 

§7^ Upon receiving any such account from the collector, the Certification 

' "^ ^ & J _ ,..,', and transmis- 

trustees shall compare it with the original tax list, and, if thev find sion thereof 

• 1 1 11 1 1 1 ^ ■ ^° county 

it to be a true transcript, they shall add to such account their cer- treasurer 
tificate, to the effect that they have compared it with the original 
tax list and found it to be correct, and shall immediatel}^ transmit 
the account, affidavit and certificate to the treasurer of the county. 

'§74 Out of any moneys in the county treasury, raised for con- Amount of 

. 1-1 unpaid taxes 

tmgent expenses, or for the purpose of paying the amount of the to be paid 
taxes so returned unpaid, the treasurer shall pay to the collector 
the amount of the taxes so returned as unpaid, with one per centum 
of the amount in addition thereto, for the compensation of such 
collector, and if there are no moneys in the treasury applicable to 
such purpose, the board of supervisors, at the time of levying said 
unpaid taxes, as provided in the next section, shall pay to the 
collector of the school district the amount thereof, with said addi- 
tion thereto, by voucher or draft on the county treasurer, in the 
same manner as other county charges are paid, and the collector 
shall be again charged therewith by the trustees. 

§75 Such account, affidavit and certificate shall be laid by the Collection of 

unpaid taxes 

county treasurer before the board of supervisors of the county, 
who shall cause the amount of such unpaid taxes, with 7 per cent 
of the amount in addition thereto, to be levied upon the lands upon 
which the same were imposed; and if imposed upon the lands of 
any incorporated company, then upon such company; and when 
collected the same shall be returned to the county treasurer to 



'As amended by section 4, chapter 512, laws of 1897. 



62 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Payment 
before levy 
of tax 



Proceeding for 
collection of 
unpaid taxes 



Warrant for 
collection of 
tax 



Delivery 
collector 



reimburse the amount so advanced, with the expenses of collection; 
and if imposed upon the stock of a nonresident stockholder in a 
banking association organized under the laws of Congress, then 
the same, with 7 per cent of the amount in addition thereto, shall 
be a lien upon any dividends thereafter declared upon such stock, 
and, upon notice by the board of supervisors to the president and 
directors of such bank of such charge upon such stock, the presi- 
dent and directors shall thereafter withhold the amount so stated 
from any future dividends upon such stock, and shall pay the same 
to the collector of the town duly authorized to receive the same. 

'§76 Any person whose lands are included in any such account 
may pay the tax assessed thereon, with 5 per centum added thereto^ 
to the county treasurer, at any time before the board of super- 
visors shall have directed the same to be levied. 

§77 The same proceedings in all respects shall be had for the 
collection of the amount so directed to be raised by the board of 
supervisors as are provided by law in relation to the county taxes', 
and, upon a similar account, as in the case of county taxes of the 
arrears thereof uncollected, being transmitted by the county treas- 
urer to the Comptroller, the same shall be paid on his warrant to 
the treasurer of the county advancing the same; and the amount 
so assumed by the state shall be collected for its benefit, in the 
manner prescribed by law in respect to the arrears of county taxes 
upon land of nonresidents ; or if any part of the amount so assumed 
consisted of a tax upon any incorporated company, the same pro- 
ceedings may also be had for the collection thereof as provided by 
law in respect to the county taxes assessed upon such company. 

§78 The warrant for the collection of a district tax shall be under 
the hands of the trustees, or a majority of them, with or without 
their seals ; and it shall have the like force and effect as a warrant 
issued by a board of supervisors to a collector of taxes in the town ; 
and the collector to whom it may be delivered for collection shall 
be thereby authorized and required to collect from every person in 
such tax list named the sum set opposite to his name, or the amount 
due from any person or persons specified therein, in the same man- 
ner that collectors are authorized to collect town and county taxes. 

§79 A warrant for the collection of a tax voted by the district 
shall not be delivered to the collector until the 31st day after the 
tax was voted. A warrant for the collection of any tax not so 
voted may be delivered to the collector whenever the same is com- 
pleted. 



lAs amended by section 2, chapter 769, laws of 1895. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 6^ 

TITLE 7 

§8c Within such time, not less than ic days, as the trustees Collector's 
shall allow him for the purpose, the collector, before receiving the 
first warrant for the collection of money, shall execute a bond to 
thetrustees, with one or more sureties, to be approved by a majority 
of the trustees, in such amount as the district meetmg shall have 
fixed, or if such meeting shall not have fixed the amount, then in 
such amount as the trustees shall deem reasonable, conditioned for 
the due and faithful execution of the duties of his office. The Approval and 

• 11 iiii-(-i 1 f filins thereol 

trustees, upon receivmg said bond, shall, it they approve thereof, 
indorse their approval thereon, and forthwith deliver the same to 
the town clerk of the town in which said collector resides, and said 
clerk shall file the same in his office, and enter m a book to be kept 
by him for that purpose, a memorandum, showing the date of said 
bond, the names of the parties and sureties thereto, the amount of 
the penalty thereof, and the date and time of filing the same, and 
said town clerk is authorized to receive as a fee for such filing and 
memorandum the sum. of 25 cents, which sum is hereby made a 
charge against the school district interested in said bond; and in Disbursement 

1 r 1,1.. 1 1 . 1 . of state school 

case the trustees oi any school district, other than those withm moneys 
.the limits of any city or incorporated village, shall deem it for the 
best interests of the district or the public to have the collector of 
such district disburse to teachers the money apportioned by the 
state for teachers wages, they shall so direct, b}^ resolution to be 
entered upon the minutes of their proceedings, and thereupon the 
said collector, before receiving any such money for such purpose, Collectors 
shall execute a bond to the trustees, with two or more sureties, in trTstee" 
double the amount of the last apportionment, with like condition 
of sureties, approval of trustees, and amount and like directions 
as to filing as are required above for a bond for the collection of 
taxes, and conditioned also for the due and faithful execution of 
the duties of his office as such disbursing agent. In districts in Disburse- 
which a treasurer shall be elected as hereinbefore provided in this Soneys in dis- 
title, the collector shall not receive or disburse any of the m_oney treasurer'"*^ 
apportioned by the state for teachers wages, but the same shall 
be paid by the supervisor to such treasurer as hereinbefore pro- 
vided. 

' ^§81 The collector, on the receipt of a warrant for the collection Notice of 
of taxes, shall give notice to the taxpayers of the district by publicly '"'^'^'^'^ '"^ 
posting written or printed, or partly written and partly printed 
notices in at least three public places in such district, one of which 



1 As amended by section i, chapter 575, laws of 1896 
'^As amended by section i, chapter 440, laws of 1899. 



64 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Notice to rail- 
road com- 
panies and 
nonresident 
taxpayers ■ 



Collectors 
lees 



Warrant 
may be exe- 
cuted in 
another 
town etc. 



Liability of 
sureties 



Renewal of 
warrants 



shall be on the outside of the front door of the schoolhouse, stating 
that he has received such warrant and will receive all such taxes as 
may be voluntarily paid to him within 30 days from the time of 
posting said notice. Such collector shall also give a like notice 
either personally or by mail, at least 20 days previous to the expira- 
tion of the 30 days aforesaid, to the ticket agent at the nearest 
station of any railroad corporation, or the president, secretary, 
general or division superintendent or manager of any canal or 
pipe lines assessed for taxes upon the tax list delivered to him with 
the aforesaid warrant, and where the amount of the tax is $1 or 
more the collector shall also give a like notice to all nonresident 
taxpayers on said list whose residence or postoffice address may be 
known to such collector, or which may be ascertained by him upon 
inquiry of the trustees and clerk of his district, and no school col- 
lector shall be entitled to recover from any railroad corporation, 
canal company or pipe line or nonresident taxpayer more than i 
per cent fees on the taxes assessed against such corporation or 
nonresident, unless such notice shall have been given as aforesaid; 
and in case the whole amount of taxes shall not be so paid in the 
collector shall forthwith proceed to collect the same. He shall 
receive for his services, on all sums paid in as aforesaid, i per 
cent, and upon all sums collected by him, after the expiration 
of the time mentioned, 5 per cent, except as hereinbefore provi- 
ded ; and in case a levy and sale shall be necessarily made by such 
collector, he shall be entitled to traveling fees, at the rate of 10 
cents per mile, to be computed from the schoolhouse in such district. 

§82 Any collector to whom any tax list and warrant may be de- 
livered for collection may execute the same in any other district 
or town in the same county, or in any other county where the dis- 
trict is a joint district and composed of territory from adjoining 
counties, in the same manner and with the like authority as in the 
district in which the trustees issuing the said warrant may reside^ 
and for the benefit of which said tax is intended to be collected; 
and the bail or sureties of any collector, given for the faithful per- 
formance of his official duties, are hereby declared and made liable 
for any moneys received or collected on any such tax list and war- 
rant. 

§83 If the sum or sums of money, payable by any person or per- 
sons named in such tax list, shall not be paid by him or them or 
collected by such warrant within the time therein limited, it shall 
and may be lawful for the trustees to renew such warrant in respect 
to such delinquent person or persons ; and whenever more than one 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 65 

TITLE 7 

renewal of a warrant for the collection of any tax list may become 
necessary in any di-strict, the trustees may make such further re- 
newal or renewals, with the written approval of the supervisor of 
any town in which a schoolhouse of said district shall be located, 
to be indorsed upon such warrant. 

§84 Whenever the trustees of any school district shall discover A"^e"'i™ent 

" •' or correction 

any error in a tax list made out by them^ they may, with the ap- o^' "^^x lists 
proval and consent of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
after refunding any amount that may have been improperly col- 
lected on such tax list, if the same shall be required by him, amend 
and correct such tax list, as directed by the Superintendent, in con- 
formity to law. 

§85 Whenever any sum or sums of money payable by any per- Suits for 
son or persons named in such tax list shall not be paid by such taxes 
person or persons, or collected by such warrant within the time 
therein limited, or the time limited by any renewal of such warrant; 
or in case the property assessed be real estate belonging to an in- 
corporated company, and no goods or chattels can be found whereon 
to levy the tax, the trustee or trustees may sue for and recover the 
same in their name of office. 

§86 The collector shall keep in his possession all moneys received Custody of 
or collected by him by virtue of any warrant, or received by him 
from the county treasurer or board of supervisors for taxes re- 
turned as unpaid, or moneys apportioned by the state or raised 
by direct taxation for teachers wages or library, to be by him paid 
out upon the written order of a majority of the trustees; said col- 
lector, when a treasurer shall have been elected in his district, shall 
pay over the moneys collected by him by virtue of his warrant, ^j^y™'^"* o^^'' 

-^ -^ -^ ■> ■> '01 moneys to 

to said treasurer as hereinbefore provided in this title ; and he shall treasurer 
report in writing, at the annual meeting, all his collections, receipts „ . 

and disbursements, and shall report to the supervisor on or before ^<?'^J^ipts and 

^ '- disbursements 

the first Tuesday in March in each year the amounts of school 
moneys in his hands not paid out on trustees orders, and shall pay 
over to his successor in office, when he has duly qualified and given payment over 
bail, all moneys in his hands belonging to the district. suc'ces"or *° 

§87 If by the neglect of any collector any moneys shall be lost Collector to 
to any school district, which might have been collected within the 
time limited in the warrant delivered to him for their collection, 
he shall forfeit to such district the amount of the moneys thus lost, 
and shall account for and pay over the same to the trustees of such 
district, in the same manner as if they had been collected. 



66 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE 8 

Recovery of 
money on 
collectors 
bond etc. 



Delivery and 
tiling ot toX 
list and 
warrant 



§88 For the recovery of all such forfeitures, and of all balances 
in the hands of the collector, which he shall have neglected or re- 
fused to pay to his successor, or to the treasurer of such district, 
the trustees, in their name of office, shall have their remedy upon 
the official bond of the collector, or any action and any remedy 
given by law; and they shall apply all such moneys, when recovered, 
in the same manner as if paid without suit. 

§89 Within 15 days after any tax list and warrant shall have 
been returned by a collector to the trustees of any school district, 
the trustees shall deliver the same to the town clerk of the town 
in which the collector resides, and said town clerk shall file the 
same in his office. 



Call for a 
special meet- 
ing to form 
district 



Notice of 
meeting 



Superintend- 
ent may order 
meeting 

Qualifications 

of voters 



Notices, how 
given in vil- 
lage districts 



TITLE VIII 

Union free schools, how estabUshed, who are voters at meetings and their 
powers; election and terms of office of members of board of education, 
and powers of such board 

ARTICLE I 

Of the proceedings for the establishment of union free schools, powers 
of voters at meetings; classification of terms of office and election 
of m,emhers of hoards of education; certified copies of proceedings 
of meetings to he filed; hoard of education to elect a president and 
appoint a treasurer and collector 

'§1 Whenever 15 persons entitled to vote at any meeting of the 
inhabitants of any school district in the state, sign a request for a 
meeting, to be held for the purpose of determining whether a union 
free school shall be established therein in conformity with the pro- 
visions of this title, it shall be the duty of the trustees of such dis- 
trict, within 10 days after such request shall have been presented 
to them, to give public notice that a meeting of the inhabitants of 
such district, entitled to vote thereat, will be held for such purpose 
as aforesaid, at the schoolhouse, or other more suitable place, in 
such district, on a day and at an hour in such notice to be speci- 
fied, not less than 20 nor more than 30 days after the publication 
of such notice. If the trustees shall refuse to give such notice, or 
shall neglect to give the same for 20 days, the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction may authorize and direct any inhabitant of said 
district to give the same. The qualifications of the inhabitants, 
entitled to vote at- such meeting, shall be sufficiently set forth in 
the notice aforesaid. 

§2 Whenever such district shall correspond wholly or in part 
with an incorporated village, in which there shall be published a 



lA-f? amended by section o, chapter 264, laws of 1896, 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 6/ 



TITLE 8 



daily or weekly newspaper, the notice aforesaid shall be given by 
posting at least five copies thereof, severally, in various conspicu- 
ous places in said district, at least 20 days prior to such meeting, 
and by causing the same to be published once a week for three 
consecutive weeks before such meeting, in all the newspapers pub- 
lished in said district. In other districts the said notice shall be in other 
given by posting the same as aforesaid, and in addition thereto^ 
the trustees of such district shall authorize and require any tax- 
able inhabitant of the same, to notify every other inhabitant (quali- 
fied to vote as aforesaid), of such meeting, to be called as aforesaid 
who shall give such notification by reading said notice in his or her 
hearing, or in case of his or her absence from home, by leaving a 
copy thereof, or so much thereof as relates to the time, place and 
object of the meeting, at the place of his or her abode at least 20 
days prior to the time of such meeting ; but the proceedings of any Legality of 

,,..., proceedings 

meeting held pursuant to sections i and 2 of this title, shall not be 
held illegal for want of a due notice to all the persons qualified to vote 
thereat ; unless it shall appear that the omission to give such no- 
tice was wilful and fraudulent. 

^^T. The reasonable expense of such notices, and of their publica- Expense of 

"^ '^ 11- notices and 

tion and service, shall be chargeable upon the district, m case a publication 
union free school is established by the meeting so convened, to be 
levied and collected by the trustees, as in case of taxes now levied 
for school purposes; but in the event that such union free school 
shall not be established, then the said expense shall be chargeable 
upon the inhabitants signing the request jointly and severally, to 
be sued for, if necessary, in any court having jurisdiction of the 
same. 

^§4 Whenever ic persons, entitled as aforesaid, from each of two Meeting of 

" ^ . . two or more 

or more adjoining districts, shall unite in a request for a meeting districts 
of the inhabitants of such districts, to determine whether such dis- 
tricts shall be consolidated by the establishment of a union free 
school therefor and therein, it shall be the duty of the trustees of 
such districts, or a majority of them, to give like public notice of Notice thereof 
such meeting, at some convenient place within such districts and 
as central as may be, within the time, and to be published and 
served in the manner set forth in the first and second sections of 
this title, in each of such districts. The reasonable expenses of pre- Expenses 
paring, publishing and serving such notices shall be chargeable upon 
the union free school district, and be collected by tax, if a union 



^As amended by section lo, -chapter 264, laws of i8q6. 
^ As amended by section 11, chapter 264, laws of 1896. 



68 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE 8 



Superintend- 
ent may order 
meeting 



Proceedings 
of meetings 
to form union 
free school 
district 



Election of 
trustees 



Terms of 
trustees 



Board of 
education 



free school shall be established pursuant to such request, but otner 
wise the signers of the request shall be jointly and severally liable 
for such expense. The Superintendent of Public Instruction may 
order such meeting under the conditions and in the manner pre- 
scribed in the first section of this title. 

i§5 Any such meeting held pursuant to the foregoing provisions 
shall be organized by the election of a chairman and secretary, and 
may be adjourned from time to time, by a majority vote, provided 
that such adjournment shall not be for a longer period than lo 
days ; and whenever at any such meeting duly called and held under 
the provisions of sections i and 2 of this title at least 15 qualified 
voters of the district shall be present, or at such meeting duly 
called and held under the provisions of section 4 of this title, at 
least 15 qualified voters of each of the two or more adjoining dis- 
tricts joining in the request, shall be present, such meeting may, 
by the affirmative vote of a majority present and voting, adopt a 
resolution to establish a union free school in said district, or to con- 
solidate the two or more adjoining districts by establishing a union 
free school in said districts pursuant to the notice of said meeting. 
If said meeting shall determine to establish a union free school in 
said district or districts as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for such 
meeting thereafter to proceed to the election by ballot, of not less 
than three nor more than nine trustees, who shall, by the order of 
such meeting, be divided into three several classes, the first to hold 
until one, the second until two, and the third until three years from 
the first Tuesday of August next following, except as in the next 
section provided. Thereafter there shall be elected in all union 
free school districts whose limits do not correspond with those of 
an incorporated village or city, at the annual meeting of said dis- 
tricts, trustees of said districts, to supply the places of those whose 
term of office, by the classification aforesaid, are about to expire. 
The trustees, so as aforesaid elected, shall enter at once upon their 
offices, and the office of any existing trustee or trustees in such dis- 
trict or districts, before the establishment of a union free school 
therein, shall cease, except for the purposes stated in section 12 of 
title 6 of this act. Neither a school commissioner nor a supervisor 
is eligible to be a member of any board of education, and the ac- 
ceptance of either of said offices by a member of said board vacates 
his office as such member. The said trustees and their successors 
in office shall constitute the board of education of and for the union 
free school district for which they are elected, and the designation 



lAs amended by section 12, chapter 264, laws of 1896? 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 69 

TITLE 8 

of such district as union free school district number .... of the town Designation 

of shall be made by the school commissioner having 

jurisdiction of the district; and the said board shall have the name 
and style of the board of education of (adding the designation afore- 
said) ; copies of said request, notice of meeting, order of the Super- 
intendent directing some inhabitant to call said meeting, if any, ^^^=®|^[?s|^ 
and minutes of said meeting or meetings duly certified by the chair- ^^'^ deposited 
man and secretary thereof, shall be by them, or either of them, 
transmitted and deposited, one to and with the town clerk, one to 
and with the school commissioner in whose jurisdiction said dis- 
tricts are located, and one to and with the Superintedent of Public ^g^^^^^^^j^^J^^^j^j^ 
Instruction ; but when at any such meeting, the question as to the 
establishment of a union free school shall not be decided in the 
affirmative, as aforesaid, then all further proceedings at such meet- 
ing, except a motion to reconsider or adjourn, shall be dispensed 
with, and no such meeting shall be again called within one year ^/dTstrict^ 
thereafter. And when any such meeting shall have established restricted 
a union free school in said district or districts, such union free 
school district shall not be dissolved within the period of one year 
from the first Tuesday of August next after such meeting. 

^§6 Whenever said board of education shall be constituted for Trustees of 

1.. 1 T- 1-11 !• districts same 

any district or districts whose limits correspond with those of any as city or 

1-11 -1 1 1 1 11 1 1 village, terms 

incorporated village or city, the trustees so elected shall, by the of 
order of such meeting, be divided into three several classes: The 
first class to serve until one; the second, until two; and the third, 
until three years after the day of the next charter election in such 
village or city, and their regular term of service shall be computed 
from the several days of such charter elections. And thereafter. Annual 
there shall be annually elected in such village and cities, at the 
charter elections, by separate ballot, to be endorsed "school trus- 
tee," in the same manner as the charter officers thereof, trustees 
of the said union free schools, to supply the places of those whose 
terms by the classification aforesaid are about to expire. 

I The number of members of the board of education of a union Number of 

members may 

free school district whose limits correspond with an incorporated be increased 

^ or decreased 

Village or city, may be increased to not more than nine or de- 
creased to not less than three in the following manner: The board 
of education of such union free school district, shall, upon the ap- 
plication of at least 15 resident taxpayers of such district, submit 
to a special meeting, held at least 30 days prior to the annual char- 
ter election, in such village or city a proposition for the increase 

'Amended by chapter 489, laws of 1903. 



70 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

TITLE 8 

or decrease of the number of members of the board of education 
to a number specified in the proposition. Such special meeting 
shall be called and held in the manner prescribed by this act. If 
such proposition is adopted and it is determined thereby to in- 
crease the number of members of the board of education of such 
district, there shall be elected at the next ensuing annual village 
or city election, a sufficient number of members of the board of 
education so that the total number of members of the board 

i will be the number specified in such proposition. Such addi- 

tional members shall be elected for such terms so that as nearly 
as possible the terms of one third of the members of such board 
will expire annually. Successors to such additional members shall 
be elected in like manner. If such proposition is adopted and it 
is determined thereby to decrease the number of the board of edu- 
cation in such district, no members of the board of education of 
such district shall thereafter be elected until by expiration of term 
the number of members of the board of education will be less than 
the number specified in such proposition ; and thereafter the num- 

I ber of members of the board of education of such district shall be 

the number specified in such proposition. Not more than one 
proposition under this section shall be submitted in any calendar 
year. 

Board, a cor- iR^ The said boards of education are hereby severally created 

poration " ' 

bodies corporate, and each shall, at its first meeting, and at each 
annual meeting thereafter, elect one of their members president. 

President In cvcry union free school district other than those whose limits 
correspond with those of an incorporate city or village the board 
of education shall have power to appoint one of their number, or 

Clerk of board g^ qualified voter in said district, and a person other than a trus- 

and district, J- 

appointment ^gg or a tcachcr employed in said district, as clerk of the board of 

of, etc. ' ^ -^_ 

education of such district. Such clerk shall also act as clerk of 
said district, and shall perform all the clerical and other duties 
pertaining to his office, and for his services he shall be entitled 
to receive such compensation as shall be fixed at an annual meet- 
ing of the qualified voters of such district. In case no provision 
is made at an annual meeting of the inhabitants for the compen- 
sation of a clerk, then and in that case the board of education 
Treasurer and shall havc powcr to fix the samc. Said board of education shall 

collector ^ 

also have power to appoint one of the taxable inhabitants of their 
district treasurer, and fix his compensation, and another collector 
of the moneys to be raised within the same for school purposes, 



'As amended by section i, chapter 466, laws of 1897. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW yi 

TITLE 8 

who shall severally hold such appointments during the pleasure 
. of the board. Such treasurer and collector shall each, and within Bonds of 

treasurers 

lo days after notice in writing of his appointment, duly served ^^"^ 'collectors 
upon him, and before entering upon the duties of his office, exe- 
cute and deliver to the said board of education a bond, with such 
sufficient penalties and sureties as the board may require, con- 
ditioned for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office, and 
in case such bond shall not be given within the time specified, vacancies 
such office shall thereby become vacant, and said board shall 
thereupon, by appointment, supply such vacancy. And said 
board of education shall also have power to supply, by appoint- 
ment, any vacancy in the office of such clerk, occasioned by death, 
resignation, removal from the district or otherwise. 

ARTICLE 2 
Of the qualifications of voters in union free school districts, and of 
meetings of such voters and their powers 
^§8 Every person of full age, residing in any union free school Qualifications 
district, and who has resided therein for a period of 30 days next 
preceding any annual or special meeting held therein, and a 
citizen of the United States, who owns, or hires, or is in the possession 
under a contract of purchase, of real property in such school dis- 
trict liable to taxation for school purposes; and every such resi- 
dent of such district who is a citizen of the United States of 2 1 years 
of age, and is the parent of a child or children of school age, some 
one or more of whom shall have attended the district school in 
said district for a period of at least eight weeks within one year 
preceding such school meeting; and every such person not being 
the parent, who shall have permanently residing with him or her 
a child or children of school age, some one or more of whom shall 
have attended the district school in said district for a period of at 
least eight weeks within one year preceding such school meeting; 
and every such resident and citizen as aforesaid, who owns any 
personal property assessed on the last preceding assessment roll 
of the town, exceeding $50 in value exclusive of such as is exempt 
from execution, and no other, shall be entitled to vote at any 
school meeting held in said district, under and pursuant to the 
provisions of this title. No person shall be deemed to be ineligible 
to vote at any such school district meeting by reason of sex, who 
has one or more of the qualifications required by this section. No Eligibility 
person shall be eligible to hold any school district office in any 
union free school district unless he or she is a qualified ' voter in 

'As amended by section 14, cnapter 264. laws of 1896. 



"^2 ' NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

TITLE 8 

such district, and is able to read and write. Not more than one 
member of a family shall be a member of the same board of edu- 
cation in any school district. 
f^Tschooi^'^ §9 The corporate authorities of any incorporated village or city, 

?iiiaTand^citv ^^' which any such union free school shall be established, shall 
authorities havc powcr, and it shall be their duty, to raise, from time to time, 
by tax, to be levied upon all the real and personal property in said 
city or village, as by law provided for the defraying of the expenses 
of its municipal government, such sum or sums as the board of 
education established therein shall declare necessary for teachers 
wages and the ordinary contingent expenses of supporting the 
schools of said district. The sums so declared necessary shall be 
Statements get forth in a detailed statement in writing, addressed to the cor- 

ot anticipated ° 

expenditures porate authorities by the board of education, giving the various 
purposes of anticipated expenditure, and the amount necessary 
for each; and the said corporate authorities shall have no power 

|¥™s not to be to withhold the sums so declared to be necessary ; and such cor- 
porate authorities as aforesaid shall have power, and it shall be 

R?^isingof their" duty to raise, from time to time, by tax as aforesaid, any 

moneys such further sum or sums to be set forth in a detailed statement 

in writing, addressed to the corporate authorities by the board of 
education, giving the various purposes of the proposed expendi- 
ture, and the amount necessary for each which may have been or 
which may hereafter be authorized by a majority of the voters 
of such union free school district present and voting at any special 
district meeting duly convened, for making additions, alterations, 
or improvements to or on the sites or structures belonging to 
the district, or for the purchase of other sites or structures, or 
for a change of sites, or for the erection of new buildings, or for 
buying apparatus or fixtures, or for such other purpose relating 

Tax for to the support and welfare of the school as they may, by resolu- 

moneys voted '^ ^ j j i j 

tion, approve; and they may direct the moneys so voted to be 

levied in one sum, or by instalments, but no addition to or change 

of site or purchase of a new site or tax for the purchase of any new 

Notice of site or structure, or for the purchase of an addition to the site of 

required tax ' '^ 

for school Q^y schoolhouse, or for building any new schoolhouse, or for the 
sites etc. erectiou of an addition to any schoolhouse already built, shall be 

voted at any such meeting unless a notice by the board of education 
stating that such tax will be proposed, and specifying the amount 
and object thereof shall have been published once in each week 
for the four weeks next preceding such district meeting, in two 
newspapers, if there shall be two, or in one newspaper if there 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 73 

TITLE 8 

shall be but one, published in such district. But if no newspaper 

shall then be published therein, the said notice shall be posted up 

in at least 20 of the most public places in said district 20 days 

before the time of such meeting. No vote to raise money shall Rescinding 

be rescinded,- nor the amotmt thereof be reduced at any subse-ductionof 

quent meeting, unless the same be done within 10 days after the 

same shall have been first voted. For the purpose of giving effect Power to 

... , . . 1 , , borrow money 

to these provisions, the corporate authorities are hereby author- 
ized, whenever a tax shall have been voted to be collected in instal- 
ments for the purpose of building a new schoolhouse, or building 
an addition to a schoolhouse, or making additions, alterations or 
improvements to buildings or structures belonging to the district, 
or for the purchase of a new site, or for an addition to a site, to 
borrow so much of the sum voted as may be necessary, at a rate 
of interest not exceeding 6 per cent, and to issue bonds or other issue of 
evidences of indebtedness therefor, which shall be a charge upon certificates 
the district, and be paid at maturity, and which shall not be sold 
below par. Said bonds or other evidences of indebtedness shall 
be prepared by the board of education, signed by the president 
and secretary thereof, and delivered to the treasurer of the incor- 
porated village or city, who shall countersign the same, and give 
due notice of the time and place of the sale of such bonds, at least Notice of sale 
10 days prior thereto, by publication twice in two newspapers, if 
there shall be two, or in one newspaper, if there shall be but one, 
published in such district. But if no newspaper shall then be pub- 
lished therein, the said notice shall be posted up in at least 10 of 
the most public places in said district 10 days before the day of 
sale. The proceeds of the sale of said bonds shall be paid into the proceeds 
treasury of said incorporated village or city, to the credit of the"^®^^® 
board of education of such district. 

'§10 A majority of the voters of any union free school district Powers of 
other than those whose limits correspond with an incorporated special mlet- 
city or village, present at any annual or special district meeting, ^^^J° ^'°*® 
duly convened, may authorize such acts and vote such taxes as 
they shall deem expedient for making additions, alterations or 
improvements to or in the sites or structures belonging to the dis- 
trict, or for the purchase of other sites or structures, or for a change 
of sites, or for the erection of new buildings, or for buying appara- 
tus, or fixtures, or for paying the wages of teachers and the neces- 
sary expenses of the school, or for such other purpose relating to 
the support and welfare of the school as they may, by resolution, 



J As amended by section 15, chapter 264, laws of 1896, 



74 



NEW YORK STATE EDtf CATION DEPARTMENT 



Designation 
cf sites 



Vote on ex- 
penditure of 
money or tax 



Tax for 
sums voted 



Notice of 
proposed tax 
for school 
buildings, 
sites etc. 



Collection of 
tax 



Rescinding 
vote, or 
reduction of 
amount voted 



Power to 
borrow monev 



approve ; the designation of a site or sites by the district meeting 
shall be by written resolution containing a description thereof by 
metes and bounds, and such resolution must receive the assent of 
a majority of the qualified voter&'present and voting at said meeting, 
to be ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and noes. On 
all propositions arising at said meetings involving the expenditure 
of money, or authorizing the levy of a tax or taxes in one sum or 
by instalments, the vote thereon shall be by ballot, or ascertained 
by taking and recording the ayes and noes of such qualified voters 
attending and voting at such meetings; and they may direct the 
moneys so voted to be levied in one sum, or by instalments, but 
no addition to or change of site or purchase of a new site or tax for 
the purchase of any new site or structure, or for the purchase of an 
addition to the site of any schoolhouse, or for building any new 
schoolhouse, or for the erection of an addition to any schoolhouse 
already built, shall be voted at any such meeting unless a notice 
by the board of education stating that such tax will be proposed, 
and specifying the amount and object thereof, shall have been 
published once in each week for the four weeks next preceding such 
district meeting, in two newspapers if there shall be two, or in one 
newspaper if there shall be but one, published in such district. 
But if no newspaper shall then be published therein, the said notice 
shall be posted in at least 20 of the most public places in said dis- 
trict 20 days before the time of such meeting. And whenever a 
tax for any of the objects hereinbefore specified shall be legally 
voted the boards of education shall make out their tax list, and 
attach their warrant thereto, in the manner provided in article 7 
of title 7 of this act, for the collection of school district taxes, and 
shall cause such taxes or such instalments to be collected at such 
times as they shall become due. No vote to raise money shall be 
rescinded, nor the amount thereof be reduced at any subsequent 
meeting, unless it be an adjourned meeting or a meeting called by 
regular and legal notice, which shall specify the proposed action, 
and at which the vote upon said proposed reduction or rescinding 
shall be taken by ballot or by taking and recording the ayes and 
noes of the qualified voters attending and voting thereat. For 
the purpose of giving effect to these provisions, trustees or boards 
of education are hereby authorized, whenever a tax shall have been 
voted to be collected in instalments for the purpose of building a 
new schoolhouse or building an addition to a schoolhouse, or making 
additions, alterations or improvements to buildings or structures 
belonging to the district, or for the purchase of a new site or for 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 75 

TITLE 8 

an addition to a site, to borrow so much of the sum voted as may 
be necessary at a rate of interest not exceeding 6 per centum, and 
to issue bonds or other evidences of indebtedness therefor, which issue and sale 
shah be a charge upon the district, and be paid at maturity, and°^^°"*^^ 
which shall not be sold below par ; due notice of the time and place 
of the sale of such bonds shall be given by the board of education 
at least lo days prior thereto by publication twice in two news- 
papers, if there be two, or in one newspaper if there be but one 
published in such district. But if no newspaper shall then be pub- 
lished therein, the said notice shall be posted in at least lo of the 
most public places in said district lo days before the sale. ' It shall 
be the duty of the trustees or the persons having charge of the 
issue or payment of such indebtedness, to transmit a statement 
thereof to the clerk of the board of supervisors of the county in 
which such indebtedness is created, annually, on or before the 
first day of November. 

§11 All moneys required to pay teachers wages in a union free Tax for 
school or in the academical department thereof, after the duewages^"^^ 
application of the school moneys thereto, shall be raised by tax. 

§12 Every union free school district shall, for all the purposes 
of the apportionment and distribution of school moneys, be re- 
garded and recognized as a school district. 

ARTICLE 3 

Of annual and special meetings, and of election of members of hoards 
of education and clerks in districts where the number of children 
exceeds 300. 

§13 I In union free school districts other than those whose Annual and 
limits correspond with those of any incorporated village or city , fn|s Ttl unk.n 
the annual school meeting shall be held on the first Tuesday of d'istrict's""^ 
August. The boards of education shall have power to call special 
meeting of the inhabitants of their respective districts whenever 
they shall deem it necessary and proper, in the manner prescribed 
in section 10 of this title, and shall in like manner give notice. of 
the time and place of holding the annual school district meeting. 
The proceedings of any special meeting shall not be held to be ille- 
gal for want of a due notice to all persons qualified to vote thereat, 
unless it shall appear that the omission to give such notice was wil- 
ful and fraudulent. The annual meeting of the board of educa- Annual 
tion of every such union free school district shall be held on thewd^ff"^ 
Tuesday next after the annual school district meeting therein. therein"'^ 



76 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE 8 

Annual and 
special meet- 
ings in dis- 
tricts same as 
city or village 



Annual 
meeting of 
board of 
education 
therein 



Tax may be 
voted for free 
textbooks 



Election of 
board and 
clerk in 
districts 
over 300 



Time of hold 
ing election 



2 In union free school districts whose limits correspond with 
those of any incorporated village or city, the boards of education 
shall have power to call special meetings of the inhabitants of 
their respective districts for the purposes mentioned in section 9 of 
this title,- in the manner prescribed in said section 9. The pro- 
ceedings of any special meeting shall not be held to be illegal for 
want of due notice to all persons qualified to vote thereat unless it 
shall appear that the omission to give such notice was wilful and 
fraudulent. The annual meeting of the board of education of 
every such union free school district shall be held on the Tuesday 
next after the canvass and declaration of the election of the mem- 
bers of said board at the annual charter election of the village or 
city. 

^3 The qualified voters of any union free school district present 
at any annual school meeting therein, for which a notice has been 
duly given that the vote hereinafter mentioned will be taken, or at 
any special school meeting therein, duly and legally called for that 
purpose, shall have power, by a majority vote, to be ascertained by 
taking and recording the ayes and noes, to vote a tax for the pur- 
chase of all textbooks used, or to be used, in the schools of the dis- 
trict. If such tax shall be voted it shall be the duty of the board 
of education of such district, within 90 days thereafter, to pur- 
chase and furnish free textbooks to all the pupils attending the 
schools in such district. Such board of education shall have 
power to establish such rules and regulations concerning the use 
by the pupils of such textbooks, and the care, preservation and 
custody thereof as it shall deem necessary. 

^§14 In union free schools districts other than those whose limits 
correspond with those of an incorporated village or city, in which 
the number of children of school age exceeds 300, as shown by the 
last annual report of the board of education to the school commis- 
sioner, the qualified voters of any such district may by a vote of 
a majority of those present and voting, at any annual meeting, or 
at any duly called special meeting, to be ascertained by taking and 
recording the ayes and noes, determine that the election of the 
members of the board of education shall be held on the Wednesday 
next following the day designated by law for holding the annual 
meeting of said district. Until such determination shall be changed, 
such election shall be held on the Wednesday next following the 
day on which such annual meeting of such district shall be held, 



'Added by section i, chapter 195, laws of 1897. 
2As amended by section 2, chapter 466, laws of 1897. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 'J'J 

TITLE 8 

in each year, between the hours of 12 o'clock noon, and 4 o'clock in 
the afternoon at the principal schoolhouse in the district, or at such 
other suitable place as the trustees may designate. When the Notice of 
place of holding such election is other than at the principal school- 
house, the trustees shall give notice thereof by the publication of 
such notice, at least one week before the time of holding such elec- 
tion, in some newspaper published in the district, or by posting the 
same in three conspicuous places in the district. The trustees may, Extension of 
by resolution, extend the time of holding the election from 4 o'clock 
until sunset. The board of education, or such of them as may be 
present, shall act as inspectors of election. If a majority of such inspectors of 

election 

board shall not be present at the time of opening the polls, those 
members of the board in attendance may appoint any of the legal 
voters of the district present, to act as inspectors in place of the 
absent trustees ; and if none of the board of education shall be pres- 
ent at the time of opening the polls, the legal voters present may 
choose three of their number to act as inspectors. The district Record of 
clerk, or the clerk of the board of education, as the case may be, 
shall attend at the election and record in a book to be provided 
for that purpose, the name of each elector as he or she deposits 
his or her ballot. If such district clerk, or clerk of the board of 
education shall be absent, or shall be unable or refuse to act, the 
board of education or inspectors of election shall appoint some per- 
son who is a legal voter in the district to act in his place. Any P'^'^^i^y f°r 

•1111111 r refusal to 

clerk or acting clerk who shall neglect or refuse to record the name receive names 
of a person whose ballot is received by the inspectors, shall be liable 
to a fine of $25, to be sued for by the supervisor of the town. If challenges 
any person ofi:ering to vote at any such election shall be challenged 
as unqualified by any legal voter, the chairman of the inspectors 
shall require the person so offering to vote to make the following 
declaration: " I do declare and affirm that I am and have been for Declarations 
the 30 days last past an actual resident of this school district, and ®'^^'^^°" 
that I am legally qualified to vote at this election." And every 
person making such declaration shall be permitted to vote; but if 
any person shall refuse to make such declaration his or her ballot 
shall not be received by the inspectors. Any person who upon Penalty for 
being so challenged shall wilfully make a false declaration of hisetc^^ voting, 
or her right to vote at such election, is guilty of a misdemeanor. 
Any person who shall vote at such election, not being duly quali- 
fied, shall, though not challenged, forfeit the sum of $10, to be sued 
for by the supervisor of the town for the benefit of the school or 
schools of the district. The board of education shall, at the ex- Ballot box 



78 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE 8 

Ballots 



Canvass of 
votes and 
declaration 
of results 



Special 
election 



Terms of offi- 
cers elected 
thereat 



Election dis- 
putes, how 
settled 



limitation of 

foregoing 

provisions 



pense of the district, provide a suitable box in which the ballots 
shall be deposited as they are received. Such ballots shall contain 
the names of the persons voted for, and shall designate the office 
for which each one is voted. The ballots may be either written 
or printed, or partly written and partly printed. The inspectors 
immediately after the close of the polls shall proceed to canvass 
the votes. They shall first count the ballots to determine if they 
tally with the number of names recorded by the clerk, and if they 
exceed that number, enough ballots shall be withdrawn to make 
them correspond. Such inspectors shall count the votes and an- 
nounce the result. The person or persons having a majority of the 
votes respectively for the several offices shall be elected, and the 
clerk shall record the result of such ballot and election as announced 
by the inspectors. Whenever the time for holding such election 
as aforesaid shall pass without such election being held in any such 
district, a special election shall be called by the board of educa- 
tion, but if no such election be called by said board within 20 days 
after such time shall have passed, the school commissioner or the 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction may order any inhabi- 
tant of said district to give notice of such election in the manner 
prescribed by section 10 of this title; and the officers elected at 
such special election shall hold their respective offices only until 
the next annual election, and until their successors are elected and 
shall have qualified as in this act provided. All disputes concern- 
ing the validity of any such election, or of any votes cast thereat, 
or of any of the acts of the inspectors or clerks, shall be referred to 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, whose decision in the 
matter shall be final. Such Superintendent may, in his discretion, 
order a new election in any district. The foregoing provisions 
shall not apply to union free school districts in cities, nor to union 
free school districts whose boundaries correspond with those of an 
incorporated village, nor to arry school district organized under a 
special act of the Legislature, in which the time, manner and form 
of the election of district officers shall be different from that pre- 
scribed for the election of officers in union free school districts, or- 
ganized under the general law, nor to any of the union free school 
districts in the counties of Richmond, Suffolk, Chenango, Warren, 
Erie and St Lawrence. In Richmond county, whenever any dis- 
trict shall have determined to hold its annual election on Wednes- 
day following the date of its annual school meeting, the same shall 
be held between the hours of 4 o'clock and 9 o'clock in the even- 
ing. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 79 

TITLE 8 

ARTICLE 4 
Of the powers and duties of boards of education- 
al^ The said board of education of every union free school dis- ^°^^^''^ °^ 
trict shall severally have power, and it shall be their duty: 

1 To adopt such bylaws and rules for its government as shall ^^1^^^^!^^ 
seem proper in the discharge of the duties required under the pro- 
visions of this act. 

2 To establish such rules and regulations concerning the order Rules etc. 

for schools 

and discipline of the school or schools, in the several departments 
thereof, as they may deem necessary to secure the best educational 
results. 

3 To prescribe the course of study by which the pupils of the Course of 
school or schools shall be graded and classified, and to regulate the 
admission of pupils and their transfer from one class or departr. rent Admission of 
to another, as their scholarship shall warrant. pupis 

4 To prescribe the textbooks to be used in the schools, and to Textbooks 
compel a uniformity in the use of the same, pursuant to the provis- 
ions of this act, and to furnish the same to pupils out of any moneys 
provided for that purpose. 

5 To make provision for the instruction of pupils in physiology instruction in 
and hygiene with special reference to the effect of alcoholic drinks, etc. 
stimulants and narcotics upon the human system. 

6 To purchase a site or sites, or an addition to a site or sites, Sc^iooi sites, 

scnoolnouses 

for a schoolhouse or schoolhouses for the district, as designated by and apparatus 
a meeting of the district ; and to construct such schoolhouse or 
houses, and additions thereto as may be so designated; to pur- 
chase furniture and apparatus for such schoolhouse or houses ; to Repairs 
keep such schoolhouse or houses and the furniture and apparatus 
therein in repair ; -to hire any room or rooms in which to maintain Hiring school 
and conduct schools when the rooms in the schoolhouse or houses 
are overcrowded, or when such schoolhouse or houses are destroyed, 
injured or damaged by the elements, and to fit up and furnish such 
room or rooms in a suitable manner for conducting a school or 
schools therein ; to insure the schoolhouse or houses and their fur- insurance 
niture, apparatus and appendages, and the school library, in some 
company or companies created by or under the laws of this state, 
and to cornply with the conditions of the policy, and raise the sums 
paid for premiums by district tax. No schoolhouse shall be built Approval of 

1,1-. •! 111-1 •!■ 1 plans for ven- 

in any union tree school district until the plan tor the ventilation andtiiationetc. 
heating and lighting of such schoolhouse shall be approved in writ- 
ing by the school commissioner of the commissioner district in 
which such schoolhouse is to be built. 



8o 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



( TITLE 8 

Custody of 
property 



Title vested 
in board 



Sale of 
property 



Application 
of proceeds 



Exchange of 
real estate 



May take and 
hold real 
estate etc. 



Control of 
schools 



Establishment 
of academical 
department 



Nonresident 
pupils 



Fuel, appar- 
atus etc. 



Librarian 



Employmsnt 
pf teachers 



7 To take charge and possession of the schoolhouses, sites, lots^ 
furniture, books, apparatus, and all school property within their 
respective districts; and the title of the same shall be vested re- 
spectively in said board of education, and the same shall not be 
subject to taxation for any purpose. 

8 To sell, when thereto authorized by a vote of the qualified 
voters of the school district, any former school site or lot, or any 
real estate the title to which is vested in the board, and the build- 
ings thereon, and appurtenances or any part thereof, at such price 
and upon such terms as said voters shall prescribe, and to convey 
the same by deed to be executed by the board or a majority of the 
members thereof. All moneys arising from any such sale shall be 
used and applied for the benefit of the school district, as the voters 
thereof shall by resolution direct. Also to exchange real estate 
belonging to the district for the purpose of improving or changing 
schoolhouse sites. 

9 To take and hold for the use of the said schools or of any de- 
partment of the same, any real estate transferred to it by gift, 
grant, bequest or devise, or any gift, legacy, or annuity, of what- 
ever kind, given or bequeathed to the said board and apply the 
same, or the interest or proceeds thereof, according to the instruc- 
tions of the donor or testator. 

10 To have, in all respects, the superintendence, management 
and control of said union free schools, and to establish in the same 
an academical department, whenever in their judgment the same 
is warranted by the demand for such instruction ; to receive into 
said union free schools any pupils residing out of said district, and 
to regulate and establish the tuition fees of such nonresident pupils 
in the several departments of said schools; provided, that if such 
nonresident pupils, their parents or guardians shall be liable to be 
taxed for the support of said schools in the districts, or either of 
them, on account of owning property therein, the amount of any 
such tax paid by a nonresident pupil, his parent or guardian, shall 
be deducted from the charge of tuition; to provide fuel, furniture, 
apparatus and other necessaries for the use of said schools, and to 
appoint such librarians as they may from time to time deem neces- 
sary. 

^11 To contract with and employ such persons as by the provi- 
sions of this act are qualified teachers in the several departments 
of instruction in said school, and at the time of such employment 
shall make and deliver to each teacher, or cause to be made 



?As arnended by section i6, chapter 264, laws of 1896. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 8l 

TITLE 8 

and delivered, a contract in writing, signed by the members of said Contract of 
board, or by some person duly authorized by said board to repre- ^™^ ^^^^'^ 
sent them in the premises, in which the details of the agreement 
between the parties, and particularly the length of the term of em- 
ployment, the amovint of compensation and the time or times when 1 
such compensation shall be due and payable shall be clearly and ! 
definitely set forth. The pay of any teacher employed in the pub- Teachers 
lie schools of this state shall be due and payable at least as often duf^^' 
as at the end of each calendar month of the term of employment. 
No person who is related by blood or marriage to any member of Employment 
a board of education shall be employed as a teacher by such board, board 
except upon the consent in writing of two thirds of the members 
thereof, to be entered upon the proceedings of the board. No Removal of 
teacher shall be removed during a term of employment unless for 
neglect of duty, incapacity to teach, immoral conduct, or other 
sufficient cause. Also to pay the wages of such teacher out of the 
moneys appropriated for that purpose. 

1 2 To fill any vacancy which may occur in said board by reason Filling 
of the death, resignation, removal from office or from the school ^^"^^""^^ 
district, or refusal to serve, of any member or officer of said board; 
and the person so appointed in the place of any such member of 
the board shall hold his office until the next election of trustees, as 
by this act provided. In case of the failure of such board to fill 
such vacancy, and in case no special election is ordered for filling 
the same for a period of 30 days, the same may be filled by the 
school commissioner having jurisdiction. The Superintendent of Superintend- 

_-.,,._ . , .,-. 11, 1- ^^t may order 

Public instruction may order a special election to be held m any special election 
district for the purpose of filling such vacancy, and when such 
special election is ordered the vacancy shall not be filled otherwise. 

13 To remove any member of their board for official misconduct. Removal of 
But a written copy of all charges made of such misconduct shall caiise 

be served upon him at least 10 days before the time appointed for 
a hearing of the same ; and he shall be allowed a full and fair oppor- 
tunity to refute such charges before removal. 

14 To provide suitable and convenient water-closets or privies f or water-ciosets 
each of the schools under their charge, at least two in number, which "'^ p"^'"^^ 
shall be entirely separated each from the other and having separate 

means of access, and the approaches thereto shall be separated by I 

a substantial close fence not less than 7 feet in hight ; to keep the ' 

same in a clean and wholesome condition, and a failure to comply 
with the foregoing provisions on the part of said board shall be 
sufficient grounds for removal from office, and for withholding from 



NEW YORK State education department 



TITLE 8 

Expense 
tliereof 



Stairways on 
outside of 
buildings 



Tax for cost 
thereof 



May borrow 
money in 
anticipation 
of taxes un- 
collected 



General powers 
and duties 



Superintend- 
ent of schools 
in certain 
districts 



Census 



the district any share of the pubHc moneys of the state. Any ex- 
pense incurred by said board in carrying out the foregoing provi- 
sions shall be a charge upon the district; and a tax may be levied 
therefor without a vote of the district. 

15 To cause proper stairways to be constructed and maintained 
on all school buildings under their charge which are more than two 
stories high, on the outside thereof, with suitable doorways lead- 
ing thereto from each story above the first, for use in case of fire. 
The reasonable and proper cost thereof shall, in each case, be a 
legal charge upon the city, village or district, and shall be raised 
by tax as other moneys are raised for school purposes. 

'16 To designate a site or sites, or an addition to a site or sites, 
for a schoolhouse or schoolhouses, in a district containing a popu- 
lation of 5000 or more, without a vote of the qualified voters of 
said district as required in section 10 of this title. 

'16 To borrow money in anticipation of taxes remaining uncol- 
lected which have been levied by such district for the current fiscal 
year, and not in excess thereof, whenever in the discretion of the 
board of education it shall be necessary to do so for the purpose 
of paying the current expenses of the district for such current fiscal 
year, by issuing a certificate or certificates of indebtedness, in the 
name of the board of education, signed by the president and clerk 
thereof, which certificates must be payable within such current, 
fiscal year or within nine months thereafter, and shall bear interest 
at a rate not exceeding 6 per centum per annum. 

§16 The board of education shall possess all the powers and 
privileges, and be subject to all the duties in respect to the com- 
mon schools, or the common school departments in any union free 
school in said districts, which the trustees of common schools 
possess or are subject to under this act, not specially provided for 
in this title, and not inconsistent with the provisions of this title; 
and to enjoy, whenever an academic department shall be by them 
established, all the immunities and privileges now enjoyed by the 
trustees of academies in this state. 

§17 In any incorporated village having a population of 5000 
and upwards, or in any union free school district having a like 
population, which fact shall in either case be determined by the 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, as provided in section 
5 of title 2 of this act, the board of education in eny such village 
or union free school district may appoint a superintendent of 
schools. Such superintendent shall be under the direction of the 

'Added by chapter 112, laws of 1903. 

''Added by chapter 233, laws of 1903. ^ , . ^/ __ 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LaW 83 

TITLE 8 

board of education, which shall prescribe his powers and duties. 
He shall be paid a salary from the teachers fund, to be fixed by Salary 
the board of education, and he may be removed from office by a 
vote of the majority of all the members of such board. When- 
ever such superintendent shall be appointed, the said union free 
school district shall be entitled to the benefits of the provisions of 
section 5 of title 2 of this act. 

§ 1 8 It shall be the duty of said board to keep an accurate record Record of 
of all its proceedings in books provided for that purpose, which ^"'^'^'^ ^"^^ 
books shall be open for public inspection at all reasonable hours. 
It shall be the duty of said board to cause to be published once in publication of 
each year, and 20 days next before the annual meeting of the dis- ^g^gj^^s ^d 
trict, in at least one public newspaper, printed in such district, a '^^p'^'^'^'*^'^®^ 
full and detailed account of all moneys received by the board or 
the treasurer of said district, for its account and use, and of all 
the money expended therefore, giving the items of expenditure in 
full ; should there be no paper published in said district said board 
shall publish such account by notice to the taxpayers, by posting 
copies thereof in five public places in said district. No member j^terest in- 
of said board shall be personally interested in any contract made p'^^i^^^itld 
by said board. It shall be the duty of the board, at the annual 
meeting of the district, besides any other report or statement j^gpo^t of 
required by law, to present a detailed statement in writing of the glpg^^ggf t°^ 
amount of money which will be required for the ensuing year for f™"^^ ™®®*' 
school purposes, exclusive of the public moneys, specifying the 
several purposes for which it will be required, and the amount for 
each, but nothing in this section contained shall be construed to 
prevent the board from presenting such statement at any special 
meeting called for the purpose, nor from presenting a supple- 
mentary and amended statement or estimate at any time. 

§19 After the presentation of such statement, the question shall voting 
be taken upon voting the necessary taxes to meet the estimated [^hlbitants 
expenditures, and when demanded by any voter present, the ques- 
tion shall be taken upon each item separately, and the inhabitants 
may increase the amount of any estimated expenditures or reduce 
the same, except for teachers wages, and the ordinary contingent 
expenses of the school or schools. 

§20 If the inhabitants shall neglect or refuse to vote the sum g^^,^ ^^^^^ 
or sums estimated necessary for teachers wages, after applying ^^^^^^^^^^^.^^^ 
thereto the public school moneys, and other moneys received or 
to be received for that purpose, or if they shall neglect or refuse 
to vote the sum or sums estimated necessary for ordinary con- 
tingent expenses, the board of education may levy a tax for the 



84 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE 8 



Ordinary con- 
tingent 
expenses, 
settlement of 
disputes as to 



Regular 
meetings of 
board 



Visitation of 
schools 



Reports 



Executive 
sessions 



Expenditures 
and contracts 



Application of 
moneys 



Money to be 
paid into city 
or village 
treasury 



Security for 

custody 

thereof 

Payments, 
how made 



same, in like manner as if the same had been voted by the in- 
habitants. 

§2 1 If any question shall arise as to what are ordinary con- 
tingent expenses the same may be referred to the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, by a statement in writing, signed by one 
or more of each of the opposing parties upon the question, and 
the decision of the Superintendent shall be conclusive. 

§2 2 It shall be the duty of each of the said boards of educa- 
tion, elected pursuant to the provisions of this title, to have a 
regular meeting at least once in each quarter, and at such meetings 
to appoint one or more committees, to visit every school or depart- 
ment under the supervision of said board, and such committees 
shall visit all said schools at least twice in each quarter, and report 
at the next regular meeting of the board on the condition thereof. 
The meetings of all such boards shall be open to the public, but 
said boards may hold executive sessions, at which sessions only 
the members of such boards or the persons invited, shall be present. 

§23 It shall also be the duty of said boards, respectively, to 
have reference in all their expenditures and contracts to the amount 
of moneys which shall be appropriated, or subject to their order 
or drafts, during the current year, and not to exceed that amount. 
And said board shall severally apply all the moneys apportioned 
to the common school districts under their charge, to the depart- 
ments below the academical; and all moneys from the literature 
fund or otherwise, appropriated for the support of the academical 
department, to the latter departments. 

§24 All moneys raised for the use of the union free schools in 
any city or incorporated village, or apportioned to the same from 
the income of the literature, common school or United States 
deposit funds, or otherwise, shall be paid into the treasury of such 
city or village to the credit of the board of education therein ; and 
the funds so received into such treasury shall be kept separate and 
distinct from any other funds received into the said treasury. 
And the officer having the charge thereof shall give such additional 
security for the safe custody thereof as the corporate authorities 
of such city or village shall require. No money shall be drawn 
from such funds, credited to the several boards of education, unless 
in pursuance of a resolution or resolutions of said board, and on 
drafts drawn by the president and countersigned by the secretary 
or clerk, payable to the order of the person or persons entitled to 
receive such moneys, and stating on their face the purpose or ser- 
vice for which such moneys have been authorized to be paid by the 
said board of education. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 85 

TITLE 8 

§25 All moneys raised for the use of said union free schools, Payments of 
other than those whose limits correspond with those of any cities Sersurere 
and incorporated villages, or apportioned from the income of the^^^"^^*^^ 
literature or common school or United States deposit funds, or 
otherwise shall be paid to the respective treasurers of the said 
several boards of education entitled to receive the same, and be 
by them applied to the uses of said several boards, who shall Annual 
annually render their accounts of all moneys received and ex- of treasurers 
pended by them for the use of said schools, with every voucher 
for the same, and certified copies of all orders of the said boards 
touching the same, to the school commissioner of the district in 
which the principal schoolhouse of the district is located. No Moneys, how 
money shall be drawn from such funds in possession of such treas- 
urer, unless in pursuance of a resolution or resolutions of said 
board, and on drafts drawn by the president and countersigned 
by the clerk, or secretary, payable to the order of the person or 
persons entitled to receive such money, and stating on their face 
the purpose or service for which said moneys have been authorized 
to be paid by the said board of education. 

§26 Every academic department, established as aforesaid, shall Academic 

1 1 1 ... riT-> /-ITT- department 

be under the visitation of the Regents of the University, and shall subject to 
be subject, in its course of education and matters pertaining thereto 
(but not in reference to the buildings in which the same is con- 
ducted), to all the regulations made in regard to academies by the 
said Regents. In such departments the qualifications for the Qualifications 
entrance of any pupil shall be as high as those established by the of pTpTir""^ 
said Regents for participation in the literature fund of any acad- 
emy of the state under their supervision. 

§27 Whenever a union free school shall be established under Adoption of 
the provisions of this title, and there shall exist within its district academies 
an academy, the board of education, if thereto authorized by a 
vote of the voters of the district, may adopt such academy as the 
academic department of the district, with the consent of the trus- 
tees of the academy, and thereupon the trustees, by a resolution 
to be attested by the signatures of the officers of the board and 
filed in the office of the clerk of the county, shall declare their 
offices vacant, and thereafter the said academy shall be the aca- 
demic department of such tmion free school. The board of edu- Lease of 
cation when thereto authorized by a vote of the qualified voters by board 
of the district may lease said academy and site, and maintain the 
academic department of such union free school therein and thereon. 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Visitation 
and super- 
vision of union 
schools by 
Super- 
intendent 



Annual reports 
of board of 
education 



Special 
reports 



Removal of 
members of 
board 



^§270 The board of education of a union free school district, 
with the approval of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
and Regents of the University, may adopt an academy as the 
academic department thereof, and contract for the instruction 
therein of pupils of academic grade, residing in the district. The 
academy thereupon becomes the academic department of such 
union free school, and the district is entitled to the same rights 
and privileges, is subject to the same duties, and the apportion- 
ment and distribution of state school money shall be made to it, 
as if an academic department had been established in such school. 

§28 Every union free school district, in all its departments, 
shall be subject to the visitation of the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. He is charged with the general supervision of its 
board of education and their management and conduct of all its 
departments of instruction. And every board of education shall 
annually, on the first day of August, in each year, make to the 
commissioner having jurisdiction, and deposit in the town clerk's 
office, a report for the school year ending July 31st preceding, of 
all matters concerning which trustees of a school district are re- 
quired to report, under this act, and concerning all such other 
matters as the Superintendent shall, from time to time, require; 
and shall also whenever thereto required by the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, report fully to him upon any particular matter; 
and such report shall be in such form, and so authenticated, as 
the Superintendent shall, from time to time, require. 

§29 For cause shown, and after giving notice of the charge 
and opportunity of defense, the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion may remove any member of a board of education. Wilful 
disobedience of any lawful requirement of the Superintendent, or 
a want of due diligence in obeying such requirement or wilful 
violation or neglect of duty is cause for removal. 



Dissolution 
of common 
school dis- 
tricts upon 
consent 



ARTICLE 5 

Of the alteration of union free school districts, the increase or diminu- 
tion of number of members of boards of education, and of dissolu- 
tion of union free school districts 

^§30 Whenever one or more common school districts shall ad- 
join any union free school district whose limits do not correspond 
with those of an incorporated village or city, upon the written 
consent of the trustees of all the districts to be affected, the school 



'Added by chapter 325, laws of 1902. 

^As amended by section i, chapter 540, laws of 1899, and by section i of chapter 258 of 
the laws of 1905. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW ' 87 

TITLE 8 

commissioner having jurisdiction may dissolve such common 
school district or districts and annex the territory of such district ^""em^tory 
or districts so dissolved to such union free school district, and the ^"istrict" 
school commissioner having jurisdiction may alter any union free Alteration of 
school district whose limits do not correspond with those of any ^^^°^ 
incorporated village or city, in the manner provided by title 6 of 
this act, but no such district shall be divided, upon which there 
is an outstanding bonded indebtedness. Such school commis- 
sioner on the written consent of the boards of education of the 
districts affected may also dissolve a union free school district 
when it adjoins another union free school district and both of such 
union free school districts are wholly located within the limits of 
a city or an incorporated village and annex the territory of such 
dissolved district to the remaining union free school district. The 
bonded indebtedness of each of such districts shall, upon such dis- 
solution and annexation, become a charge upon the enlarged dis- 
trict thus formed. Such district shall succeed to all the rights of 
property possessed by the annulled district. The board of edu- 
cation of such district shall raise by tax an amount sufficient to 
pay any of the bonds and interest thereon of such district as the 
same shall become due. 

^§31 At any annual meeting held in any union free school dis- 
trict whose limits do not correspond with those of any incorpor- 
ated village or city, the qualified voters may determine by a major- 
ity vote of such voters present and voting, to be ascertained by 
taking and recording the ayes and noes, to increase or diminish increase or 

'-' CD J diminution of 

the number of members of the board of education of such district. p^n^Jers of 

board of 

If such board shall consist of less than nine members, and such education 
meeting shall determine to increase the number, such meeting 
shall elect such additional number so determined upon, and shall 
divide such number into three several classes, the first to hold 
office -one year, the second two years and the third three years. 
If such meeting shall determine to diminish the number of such 
members composing said board, no election shall be held in such 
district to fill the vacancies of the outgoing member or members 
thereof, until the number of members shall correspond to the 
number which such meeting shall determine to compose such 
board. No board of education of such district shall consist of Number 

rsstrictcd 

less than three nor more than nine members. No change shall be 
made in the number of trustees of any such school district unless 
notice is given by the board of education at the time and in the 

•As amended by section i, chapter 463, laws of 1903. 



TITLE 8 



»» NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

same manner of giving notice of the annual school meeting that a 
vote will be taken upon the question of changing the number of 
trustees at such annual meeting. 

§32 In any union free school district established under the laws 
of this state, and which shall have been established for the period 
of one y^ar or more, it shall be the duty of the board of education, 
upon the application of 15 resident taxpayers of such district, to 
call a special meeting in the manner prescribed by law, for the 
purpose of determining whether application shall be made in the 
manner hereinafter provided, for the dissolution of such union free 
school district, and for its reorganization as a common school dis- 
trict or districts. 

^7,7, Whenever, at any such meeting called and held as afore- 
said, it shall be determined by a majority vote of the legal voters 
present and voting, to be ascertained by taking and recording the 
ayes and noes, not to dissolve such union free school district, no 
other meeting for a similar purpose shall be held in said district 
within three years from the time the first meeting was held, and 
whenever at any such meeting called and held as aforesaid it shall 
be determined by a two thirds vote of the legal voters present and 
voting, to be ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and 
noes, to dissolve such union free school district, it shall be the duty 
of the board of education to present to the school commissioner 
of the commissioner district in which said union free school is 
situated, a certified copy of the call, notice and proceedings. If 
such school commissioner shall approve the proceedings of said 
meeting, he shall certify the same to the board of education. Such 
approval shall not take effect until the day preceding the first 
Tuesday of August next succeeding; but after that date such dis- 
trict shall cease to be a union free school district. 

§34 If any union free school district dissolved under the fore- 
going provisions shall have been established by the consolidation 
of two or more districts, it shall be lawful for such school com- 
missioner to order that its territory be divided into two or more 
districts, to correspond, so far as practicable, with the districts 
theretofore consolidated. 

§35 If there shall be, in such dissolved union free school district, 
an academy which shall have been adopted as the academic de- 
partment of the union free school, under the provisions of title 9, 
chapter 555 of the laws of 1864, and any amendment thereof, or 
under this act shall, upon the application of a majority of the sur- 
viving resident former trustees or stockholders, be transferred by 
the board of education to said former trustees or stockholders. 



CONSOLIDATED SCtlOOL LAW 89 

TITLE E 

§36 Such school commissioner may make his approval of the Conditional 
proceeding of any such meeting held as aforesaid conditional upon proceedings 
the payment, by the district which has been most greatly bene- 
fited by the consolidation in the way of buildings and other im- 
provements to the other district or districts into which the said 
union free school district is divided, to such sum or sums of money . 
as they may deem equitable. 

§37 All moneys remaining in the hands of the treasurer of the Apportion- 
union free school district when the order of dissolution shall take moneys on 

hand 

effect shall be apportioned equitably among the several districts 
into which such union free school district is divided, and it shall 
be paid over to the collectors or treasurers of such districts when 
they shall have been elected and have qualified according to law. 

§^8 The district or districts formed by the dissolution of such Annual 

_ ■' meetings of 

union free school district shall hold its or their annual meeting or districts 

° created by 

meetings on the first Tuesday of August, next after the dissolution dissolution 
of such union free school district, and shall elect officers as now 
required by law. 

§30 If such schoo'l commissioner shall not approve the proceed- E,ff<=^t of 

'-' ^ 1x1 disapproval 

ings of any such meeting, held as aforesaid, for the purpose of dis- '^'^ pi"°ceedings 
solving a union free school district, no other meeting shall be held 
in such district, for a similar purpose, within three years from the 
time the first meeting was held. 

§40 Whenever the proceedings of a meeting, held as aforesaid, Superintend- 
for the purpose of dissolving a union free school district, shall have 59*^^,64."^ 

■'- ^ ° ' dissolution 

been approved by such school commissioner and shall have been 
certified by him to the board of education, it shall be the duty 
of the board of education of the district affected forthwith to notify 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and to furnish him copies 
of the call, notice, proceedings of the meeting, and the action taken 
by such school commissioner thereon. 

§41 Any person or persons conceiving himself or themselves ag- Appeal to 
grieved by the action, proceedings or decision of any special meet- intendent 
ing held under the provisions of this article, or by the order, de- 
cision, action or proceedings of any school commissioner under or 
pursuant to the provisions of this article, may appeal therefrom 
to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, who is hereby au- 
thorized and required to examine and decide the same ; and his 
decision shall be final and conclusive. 

^§42 The provisions of this title shall apply to all union free Provisions 
schools heretofore organized pursuant to the provisions of chapter to schools 

. heretofore 

'As amended by section i, chapter 427, laws of 1904. organized 



90 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE 9 



433 of the laws of 1853, and the amendments thereof, and of chap- 
ter 555 of the laws of 1864, and the amendments thereof; and sec- 
tions 9 and 10 of this title, are made applicable to all school dis- 
tricts established by and organized under special statutes, except 
those of cities; and subdivisions 16 and 17 of section 15, and sec- 
tion 1 7 of this title are made applicable to all school districts having 
a population of 5000 and upwards established by and organized 

Repeal uudcr Special statutes; and all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with 

and repugnant to said sections 9, 10 and 17 and said subdivisions 

Exemptiun 1 6 and 17 of section 15 of this title are hereby repealed. So much 

of section 7 of this title as relates to the election of a clerk shall 

not affect the towns of Cortland and White Plains in Westchester, 

county. 

TITLE IX 

Acquisition of schoolhouse sites 

Acquisition of i§i Land for the site of a schoolhouse in any school district, or 
additional land adjoining to and for the enlargement of an estab- 
lished site in any school district, may be acquired in cases where 
the owner or owners thereof, or some of them, shall not consent 
to sell the same for such purpose, or the trustee, trustees or board 
of education of the district can not agree with such owner or own- 
ers or some of them, upon the price or value thereof as real prop- 
erty for public use is taken under and pursuant to the laws of the 
state. The trustee or trustees or board of education of any such 
school district is or are hereby authorized and empowered to insti- 
tute, carry on and complete the proceedings necessary for acquir- 
ing said land, and the title thereto, for and on behalf of such dis- 
Methodof trict. The method of procedure to acquire such land shall be that 
procedure prescribed for the condemnation of real property for public use in 
title I of chapter 23 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and any amend- 
ment thereof, entitled "proceedings for the condemnation of real 
property," and known as the "condemnation law." 
A licationof ^§^ '^^^ provisious of the foregoing section shall not apply to 
section cities of morc than 30,000 inhabitants nor shall it be lawful under 

Lands certain ^^^^ scctiou to acquirc title to less than the whole of any city or 
"aken^^"" village lot, with the erections thereon, if any, without the consent 
of such owner or owners; nor beyond the corporate limits of cities, 
to any garden or orchard, or any part thereof, nor to any part of 
any yard or inclosure necessary to the use and enjoyment of build- 
ings, or any fixtures or erections for the purposes of trade or manu- 
factures, without the consent of the owner or owners thereof. 

'As amended by section i, chapter 480, laws of 1901. 
^As amended by section 1, chapter 305, laws of 1904. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 9I 

TITL 

§3 Boards of education in cities of not more than 30,000 inhabi- gourds 



of 
Dn, 
trustee; 



tanis are hereby clothed with all the powers of trustees and the ^^^^g^^*'°" 

title to any and all lands acquired in any city under the provisions 

of section i of this title, shall vest in the board of education thereof, -pitie to lands 

or such other corporate body as is by law vested with the title to 

the school lands in such city. But nothing herein contained shall 

be construed to limit or circumscribe the powers and duties here- Proviso 

tofore lodged in such board of education by law. 

§4 The provisions of section i of this title shall be extended and Provisions 
apply to the city of Brooklyn, and the board of education of that city of 
ciiy is hereby clothed with all the powers of trustees under the 
provisions of this title, and the title to any and all lands acquired 
in said city under the provisions of this act shall vest in the board 
of education thereof. The proceedings mentioned in section i of 
this title may be authorized by a vote of said board of education 
and the petition may be signed by the officers of said board. 

§ 5 The provisions of section i of this title shall apply to union Provisions 
free school districts and to districts organized under special laws ; to districts 
and the trustee or trustees of such districts, and the boards of edu- under special 
cation organized under special laws shall be and are hereby clothed 
with all the powers vested in trustees in this title. 

TITLE X 

Teachers institutes 

§1 It shall be the duty of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- Superintend- 
tion to appoint a teachers institute once in each year in each school teachers 
commissioner district of the state, for the benefit and instruction 
of the teachers in the public schools, and of such as intend to be- 
come teachers, with special reference to the presentation of sub- 
jects relating to the principles of education and methods of in- 
struction in the various branches of study pursued in the schools. 
After consultation with the school commissioners, the said Super- Duration, 
intendent shall have power to determine the duration of each in- place of 

1 1 . 1 . 11 ^ . , . . 1 holding same 

stitute and to designate the time and place of holding the same. 

He shall also have power to employ suitable persons, at a reason- Employment 

- 1 . . 1 1 , . . 1 of conductor 

able compensation, to supervise and conduct the institutes, and, etc. 

in his discretion, to provide for such additional instruction as he 

may deem advisable and for the best interests of the schools. He Discretionary 

, . , . T . . . . . p powers 

may also, m his discretion, appoint an institute for two or more 
commissioner districts. He shall establish such regulations for Regulations 
the government of institutes as he ma}^ deem best ; and he may 
establish regulations in regard to certificates of qualification or 



92 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Visitation 
of institutes 
by vSuper- 
intendent 



Notice of 
time and 
place of hold- 
ing institutes 



Duty of school 
commissioner 



Report to 
Super- 
intendent 



Statement of 
expenses 



RJKht to 
hold institute 
in school 
buildings 



Closing of 
schools during 
session 



recommendation which may be issued by school commissioners as 
will, in his judgment, furnish incentives and encouragement to 
teachers to attend the institutes. So far as consistent with other 
duties imposed upon hi.n, the Superintendent shall visit the in- 
stitutes, or cause them to be visited by representatives of the De- 
partment of Public Instruction, for the purpose of examining into 
the course and character of instruction given, and of rendering such 
assistance as he may find expedient. 

§2 It shall be the duty of every school commissioner, subject 
always to the advice and direction of the Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Instruction, and in such form and manner as may be deemed 
most effectual, to notify ah teachers, trustees, boards of educa- 
tion and others known to him, who may desire to become teachers 
under his jurisdiction, of the time when and the place where the 
institute will be held. The school commissioner shall make all 
necessary arrangements for holding the institute when appointed; 
see that a suitable room is provided; attend to all the necessary 
details connected therewith; assist the conductor in organization; 
keep a record of all teachers in attendance ; and notify the trustees 
of the number of days attended by the teachers of the various dis- 
tricts, which shall be the basis of pay to such teacher for attendance 
as hereafter provided. He shall also transmit to the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction at the close of each institute, in such form, 
and within such time as the Superintendent shall prescribe, a full 
report of the institute, including a list of all teachers in attendance, 
the number of days attended by each teacher, with such other sta- 
tistical information as may be required. He shall present a full 
statement of all expenses incurred by him in carrying on the insti- 
tute, with vouchers for all expenditures made, accompanying the 
same by an affidavit of the correctness of statements made and of 
accounts presented. 

§3 The school commissioner shall have the right to hold an in- 
stitute when appointed in any school building in any district under 
such commissioner's jurisdiction which receives public money from 
the state, without expense therefor to the state beyond a reason- 
able allowance to said district for lighting, heating and janitor ser- 
vice, provided always that due and proper care shall be maintained, 
and the school building left in the like condition as found as regards 
cleanliness and neatness. 

i§4 All schools in school districts and parts of school districts 
within any school commissioner district wherein an institute is 

'As amended by section 5, chapter 512, laws of 1897. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 93 

TITLE 10 

held, not included within the boundaries of an incorporated city, 
except as hereinafter provided, shall be closed during the time such 
institute shall be in session. The closing of a school within the 
school commissioner district wherein an institute shall be held, at 
which a teacher has attended, shall not work a forfeiture of the 
contract under which such teacher was employed. In all districts 
having a population of more than 5000, and employing a superin- 
tendent whose time is exclusively devoted to the supervision of 
the schools therein, the schools may be closed or not at the option 
of the boards of education in such districts. The trustees of every ^|^||*j°j," ^°^ 
school district are hereby directed to give the teacher or teachers 
employed by them, the whole of the time spent by them in attend- 
ing at an institute or institutes held as hereinbefore stated, with- 
out deducting anything from the wages of such teacher or teachers 
for the time so spent. All teachers under a contract to teach in ^-^teacherT 
any commissioner district shall attend such institute so held f or ^""^^^ '=°"*'"^'^* 
that district, and shall receive wages for such attendance. 

§5 In the apportionment of public school money, the schools ^^^|°J^|-^j^®^"^^^ 
thus closing in any school term shall be allowed the same average of'^tatlfnwney 
pupil attendance during such time, as was the average weekly ag- 
gregate during the week previous to such institute, and any school 
continuing its sessions in violation cf the above provision shall not 
be allowed any public money based upon the aggregate attendance 
for the period during which the institute was held. Trustees and^^P°^^g°|^^ 
boards of education in such school districts and'parts of school dis- ^^^^^^j°^ 
tricts shall report, in their annual reports to the school commis- 
sioners, the number of days and the dates thereof on which a teach- 
ers institute was held in their districts during the school year, and 
whether schools under their charge were or were not closed during such 
days; and whenever the trustees' report shows a district school has 
been supported for the full time required by law, including the time 
spent by the teacher or teachers in their employ in attendance upon 
such institute, and that the trustees have given the teacher or 
teachers the time of such absence, and have not deducted anything 
from his or their wages on account thereof, the Superintendent of Superintendent 

" ^ may include 

Public Instruction may include the district in his apportionment districts 

■' _ m apportion- 

of the state school moneys, and direct that it be included by thement 
school commissioner or commissioners in their apportionment of 
school moneys ; provided, always, that such school district be in Proviso 
all other respects entitled to be included in such apportionment. 

*§6 Wilful failure on the part of a teacher to attend a teachers f^i^i^^e of 

" ^ teacher to 

institute as required, shall be considered sufficient cause for the ^^^^ ^"''^*^" 

*As amended by section 17, chapter 264, laws of 1S96. 



94 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE lO 

Failure of 
trustee to 
close schools 



Teachers 
entitled to 
\va:Tes. 



Payment of 
expenses 



Annual 
appropriation 



Summer 
institutes 



revocation of such teacher's Hcense, and a wilful failure on the part 
of trustees to close their schools during the holding of an institute 
as required, shall be considered sufficient cause for withholding the 
public moneys to which such districts would otherwise be entitled. 
Any person under contract to teach in a school in any commis- 
sioner district is required to attend an institute, if held for that 
district, even though at the time the school is not in session, and 
shall be entitled to receive wages for such attendance. 

§7 The treasurer shall pay, on the warrant of the Comptroller, 
to the order of any one or more of the school commissioners, such 
sum or sums of money as the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
shall certify to be due to them for expenses in holding a teachers 
institute; and, upon the like warrant and certificate to pay to the 
order of any persons employed by the Superintendent as additional 
instructors to conduct, instruct, teach or supervise any such teach- 
ers institute. 

§8 There shall be annually appropriated out of the free school 
fund the sum of $30,000 for the maintenance of teachers institutes. 
. '§9 There shall be annually appropriated out of the free schooj 
fund the sum of $6000, for the establishment and maintenance c. 
summer institutes- in accordance with the provisions of this sec- 
tion. It shall be the duty of the Superintendent of Public In- 
struction to establish and maintain three summer institutes hav- 
ing a course of at least three weeks duration for the training and 
instruction of teachers for the common schools of the state, to be 
located at three convenient and accessible points therein to be se- 
lected by him. Such institutes shall be supplied with proper in- 
structors, to be appointed by the State Superintendent for that 
purpose, utilizing so far as practicable, those who are employed as 
institute conductors. Admission to said institutes and all the ad- 
vantages thereof, shall be free to all teachers of the state and those 
preparing for teaching therein. The Superintendent of Public In- 
struction shall establish such regulations for the government of 
such summer institutes as he may deem best, and may establish 
regulations in regard to examinations thereat and certificates of 
qualification to be issued to graduates therefrom as shall, in his 
judgment, best furnish incentives and encouragement to teachers to 
attend such institutes. The conductor in charge of such institutes 
shall transmit to the Superintendent of Public Instruction at the 
close thereof, in such form and at such time as the Superintendent 
shall prescribe, a full report of such institute, including a list of all 

^Added to title lo by chapter 156, laws of 1896. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 95 

TITLE II 

the teachers in attendance, the number of days attended by each 
teacher, together with such other statistical information as the Su- 
perintendent may require. He shall present a full statement of all 
the expenses incurred by him in carrying on the institute, with 
vouchers for all expenditures made, accompanying the same by an 
affidavit of the correctness of the statements made and accounts 
presented. The sum of $6,000 is hereby appropriated out of the ^pp^p^ation 
free school fund for the purposes of carrying out the provisions of 
this act. 

TITLE XI 

Teachers training classes 

§1 There shall be annually appropriated out of the income of Annual 
the United States deposit fund, not otherwise appropriated, the f;^iP[°ftruct?on 
sum of $30,000 and out of the free school fund the sum of $30,000 °^ teachers 
for the instruction of competent persons in academies and union 
schools, in the science and practice of common school teaching, 
under a course to be prescribed by the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. 

§2 The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall designate the Designation of 
academies and luiion schools in which such instruction shall be schooiT^^^ ^"'^ 
given, distributing them among the school commissioner districts 
of the state, as nearly as may well be, having reference to the 
number of school districts in each, to location and to the character 
of the institutions selected. 

§3 Every academy and union school so designated shall instruct instruction of 
a class of not less than 10 nor more than 25 scholars, and every ''^^^^'^^ 
scholar admitted to such class shall continue under instruction 
not less than 16 weeks. Whenever it shall be shown to the satis- default in 
faction of the Superintendent of Public Instruction that any pupil „" tem"^! 
attending such class or classes, has been prevented from attending ^'^**™'^'^^°^ 
the same for the full term of 16 weeks, or has attended the first 
full term, but not the full time in the second term, during any one 
year, or that for any reason satisfactory to such Superintendent, 
said class or classes have not been held for the full term of 16 
weeks, such Superintendent may excuse such default and allow Allowance 
to the trustees of the academy or union free school in which said °' ^^^ 
class or classes shall have been instructed, pay for such scholar 
or scholars for the time actually spent in attendance, or during 
which said class or classes shall have been under instruction, at 
the rate of $1 for each week's instruction, as provided in section 5 



96 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE 12 



Conditions of tliis title. The Superintendent shall prescribe the conditions 
numb"fof°"' of admission to the classes, the course of instruction and the rules 
c asses, ec. ^^^ regulations under which said instruction shall be given, and 
shall, in his discretion, determine the number of classes which may 
be formed in any one year, in an academy or union school, and 
the length of time exceeding 16 weeks during which such instruc- 
tion may be given. 
Instruction §4 Instruction shall be free to all scholars admitted to such 

classes, and who have continued in them the length of time re- 
quired by the third section of this title. 
Payments to §5 The trustccs of all acadcmics and union schools in which 
instruction*^ such iustructiou shall be given shall be paid from the appropria- 
tions named in the first section of this title at the rate of $i for 
each week's instruction for each scholar who has attended for the 
term of time as required by section 3 of this title, on the certi- 
ficate of the Superintendent, to be furnished to the Comptroller. 
Expenses of §6 The appropriation provided by this act, for the instruction 

inspection and . ,. ,. ii-ji • i j-r 

supervision in acadcmics and union schools m the science and practice of com- 
mon school teaching, shall be deemed to include, and shall include, 
the due inspection and supervision of such instruction by the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the expenses of such 
inspection and supervision shall be paid out of said appropriation 
on vouchers certified by the Superintendent. 

Visitation of §7 Each class organized in any academy or union school under 

appointment by the Superintendent for instruction in the science 
and practice of common school teaching, shall be subject to the 
visitation of the school commissioner of the district in which such 

Duty of school acadcmy or union school is situated ; and it shall be the duty of 

commissioners ., .. , -. 1 • 1 j -i ••ir-i 1 

said commissioner to advise and assist the principals oi said acad- 
emies or union schools in the organization and management of 
said classes, and at the close of the term of instruction of said 
classes, under the direction of the Superintendent, to examine the 
students in such classes, and to issue teachers certificates to such 
as show moral character, fitness and scholastic and professional 
qualifications, worthy thereof. 

TITLE XII 

State scholarships in Cornell University 

Departments §1 The scvcral departments of study in Cornell University shall 
applicants be opcu to applicants for admission thereto at the lowest rates of 
expense consistent with its welfare and efficiency, and without dis- 
tinction as to rank, class, previous occupation or locality. But^ 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 97 

TITLE 12 

with a view to equalize its advantages to all parts of the state, the Freeschoiar- 
institution shall receive students to the number of one each year 
from each assembly district in this state, to be selected as herein- 
after provided, and shall give them instruction in any or in all the 
prescribed branches of study in any department of said institution, 
free of any tuition fee or of any incidental charges to be paid to 
said imiversity, unless such incidental charges shall have been 
made to compensate for materials consumed by said students or 
for damages needlessly or purposely done by them to the property 
of said tmiversity. The said free instruction shall, moreover, be 
accorded to said students in consideration of their superior ability, 
and as a reward for superior scholarship in the academies and 
public schools of this state. Said students shall be selected as Selection of 

I -r ■ 1 r • • 1 ■ Students 

the Legislature may from time to time direct, and imtil other- 
wise ordered as follows: 

1 A competitive examination, under the direction of the Depart- Competitive 

• 1111 1-11 1 examination 

ment of Public instruction, shall be held at the county court- 
house in each county of the state, upon the first Saturday of June, 
in each year, by the city superintendents and the school com- 
missioners of the county. 

2 None but pupils of at least i6 years of age and of six months Qualifications 

. 111-P1 °^ applicants 

standing m the common schools or academies of the state, during 
the year immediately preceding the examination, shall be eligible. 

3 Such examination shall be upon such subjects as may be Subjects for 

. ^,, ., r 1 • examination 

designated by the president of the university. Question papers 
prepared by the Department of Public Instruction shall be used, 
and the examination papers handed in by the different candidates 
shall be retained by the examiners and forwarded to the Depart- 
ment of Public Instruction. 

4 The examiners shall, within lo days after such examination , Certificate of 

scholarship, 

make and file m the Department of Public Instruction a certifi- ^ling of 
cate, in which they shall name all the candidates examined and 
specify the order of their excellence, and such candidates shall, in 
the order of their excellence, become entitled to the scholarships 
belonging to their respective counties. 

5 In case any candidate who may become entitled to a scholar- y^cancies, 

-^ how rilled 

ship shall fail to claim the same, or shall fail to pass the entrance 
examination at such imiversity, or shall die, resign, absent him- 
self without leave, be expelled, or, for any other reason, shall 
abandon his right to or vacate such scholarship either before or 
after entering thereupon, then the candidate certified to be next 
entitled in the same county shall become entitled to the same- 



98 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Leave of 
absence, when 
granted 



Preference of 
candidates 



Notices of 
examinations 



Duty of State 
Superinten- 
dent 



Liabilities and 
restrictions 
imposed on 
students 



In case any scholarship belonging to any county shall not be 
claimed by any candidate resident in that county, the State Super- 
intendent may fill the same by appointing thereto some candi- 
date first entitled to a vacancy in some other county, after notice 
has been served on the Superintendent or commissioners of schools 
of said county. In any such case, the president of the university 
shall at once notify the Superintendent of Public instruction, and 
that officer shall immediately notify the candidate next entitled 
to the vacant scholarship of his right to the same. 

6 Any state student who shall make it appear to the satisfac- 
tion of the president of the university that he requires leave of 
absence, for the purpose of earning funds with which to defray 
his living expenses while in attendance, may, in the discretion of 
the president, be granted such leave of absence, and may be allov/ed 
a period not exceeding six years from the commencement thereof 
for the completion of his course at said university. 

7 In certifying the qualifications of the candidates, preference 
shall be given (where other qualifications are equal) to the chil- 
dren of those who have died in the military or naval service of 
the United States. 

8 Notices of the time and place of the examinations shall be 
given in all the schools having pupils eligible thereto, prior to the 
first day of January in each year, and shall be published once a 
week, for three weeks, in at least two newspapers in each county 
immediately prior to the holding of such examinations. The cost 
of publishing such notices and the necessary expenses of such 
examination shall be a charge upon each county, respectively, and 
shall be audited and paid by the board of supervisors thereof. 
The State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall attend to 
the giving and publishing of the notices hereinbefore provided for. 
He may, in his discretion, direct that the examination in any 
county may be held at some other time and place than that above 
specified, in which case it shall be held as directed by him. He 
shall keep full records in his department of the reports of the dif- 
ferent examiners, showing the age, postoffice address and stand- 
ing of each candidate, and shall notify candidates of their rights 
under this act. He shall determine any controversies which may 
arise under the provisions of this act. He is hereby charged with 
the general supervision and direction of all matters in connection 
with the filling of such scholarships. Students enjoying the privi- 
leges of free scholarships shall, in common with the other students 
of said university, be subject to all of the examinations, rules and 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 99 

TITLE 13 

requirements of the board of trustees or faculty of said university, 
except as herein provided. 

TITLE XIII 

Common school and public libraries 

§1 So much of the school library money as shall be needed for Library 
that purpose shall be apportioned among the seA^eral cities and ^pTrtionment 
school districts by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, ture of '^^^ ^' 
who may, so far as consistent with law, make, alter or repeal any 
rules that he may deem proper for regulating the expenditure of 
the school library money and the administration and care of school 
libraries established or maintained under authority of this act; 
provided, that no portion of the school library money shall be 
expended except for books approved by the said Superintendent, 
oaid school libraries shall consist of reference books for use in the 
schoolroom, suitable supplementary reading books for children, or 
books relating to branches of study being pursued in the school 
and pedagogic books as aids to teachers. And no city or school Requirements 
district shall share in the apportionment unless it shall raise and apriortfon-" 
use for the same purpose an equal amount from taxation or other "^^^ 
local sources, 'and shall also comply with the requirements of the 
Superintendent as to the care of such libraries and otherwise- 
Library moneys shall be apportioned to the school districts andApportion- 
parts of school districts joint with parts in any city or in any district" ■'°'" 
adjoining county which shall be entitled to participate therein as 
follows: To each of said districts an amount equal to that wl.ich 
shall have been raised in said district for library purposes, either 
by tax or otherwise; and if the aggregate amount so raised in the 
districts within the county, shall exceed the sum apportioned to 
the county, the said districts respectively shall be entitled to par- 
ticipate in such apportionment pro rata to the total amount appor- 
tioned to the county. All school library moneys unapportioned Disposition of 
by school commissioners and remaining in the hands of county moneys 
treasurers shall in each succeeding year, be added to the school 
library money apportioned by the Superintendent of Public In- 
struction to the counties of the state. 

§2 The school library shall be a part of the school equipment Use etc. of 
and shall be kept in the school building at all times, and shall not 
be used as a circulating library, except that, so far as the rules 
fixed by the State Superintendent shall allow, teachers and school 
officers or pupils, with the leave of the librarian, may borrow from 
said library any book not needed for reference in the schoolroom. 



lOO 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Librarian 



Existing laws 
and rules 
applicable 



Tax 



Gifts and 
devises 

Transfer of 
books, etc. to 
free public 
libraries 



Release of 

school 

authorities 



Public 
libraries 
may take 
books, etc. 
of district 
libraries 



Delivery of 
books and 
property to 
libraries 



but such persons shall not borrow more than one volume at a 
time and shall not keep the same more than two weeks. The 
board of education or trustees shall appoint a teacher of the schools 
under their charge as librarian, who, with the trustees, shall be 
responsible for the safety and proper care of the books, and shall 
annually, and whenever required, make such reports concerning 
the library as the State Superintendent may direct. 

§3 All existing provisions of law and rules established by the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction for the management of dis- 
trict libraries shall hold good as to the management of school 
libraries till altered by or in pursuance of law. 

§4 Each city and school district in the state is hereby author- 
ized to raise moneys by tax in the same manner as other school 
moneys are raised, or to receive moneys by gift or devise, for 
starting or extending or caring for the school library. 

§5 x\ny board of education in any city or union free school dis- 
trict, or any duly constituted meeting in any other district, is 
hereby authorized to give any or all of its books or other library 
property to any township or other free public library under state 
supervision, or to aid in establishing such free public library, pro- 
vided it is free to the people of such city or district. A receipt 
from the officers of the said free public library, and an approval 
of the transfer under seal by the Regents of the University, shall 
forever thereafter relieve the said school authorities of further 
responsibility for the said library and property so transferred. 

§6 Any books or other library property belonging to any district 
library, and which have not been in direct charge of a librarian 
duly appointed within one year, may be taken and shall thereafter 
be owned by any public library under state supervision, which has 
received from the Regents of the University written permission 
to collect such books or library property, and to administer the 
same for the benefit of the public; provided, that said books or 
other library property shall be found in the territory for which 
such public library is maintained, as defined in its charter or in the 
permission granted by the Regents; and further provided that, 
on written request of the school authorities, any dictionaries, 
cyclopedias and pedagogic books shall be placed in the school 
library of the district to which such books originally belong. Any 
person, association or corporation having possession of books 
or other property belonging to any school, district or other public 
library, except books regularly borrowed and charged for a period 
not yet expired, shall deliver the same within one month from the 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW ID I 

TITLE 14 

passage of this law to the legally appointed librarian of such library, 
or of the free public library, duly authorized to take the same as 
provided in this section, and wilful neglect or refusal to comply 
with this provision shall be a misdemeanor. 

§7 The public shall not be entitled to use any library, now or Public not 
hereafter in the custody of the school authorities, but said authori- of school 
ties may appoint three trustees who shall have the powers, duties 
and responsibilities of trustees of public libraries incorporated by 
the Regents, and thereafter the school authorities may transfer to 
the custody of said trustees for the purpose of a circulating library 
any of their library property as provided in section 5. 

§8 The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is hereby Withholding 
authorized to withhold its share of public school moneys from any Superinten- 
city or district which uses school library moneys for any other 
purpose than that for which they are provided, or for any wilful 
neglect or disobedience of the law or the rules or orders of said 
Superintendent in the premises. 

TITLE XIV 

Appeals to the Superintendent of Public Instruction 

§1 Any person conceiving himself aggrieved in consequence of Appeals to 

1 . . -, Superinten- 

any decision made: dent 

1 By any school district meeting; 

2 By any school commissioner or school commissioners and other 
officers, in forming or altering, or refusing to form or alter, any 
school district, or in refusing to apportion any school moneys to 
any such district or part of a district ; 

3 By a supervisor in refusing to pay any such moneys to any 
such district ; 

4 By the trustees of any district in paying or refusing to pay. 
any teacher, or in refusing to admit any scholar gratuitously into 
any school; 

5 By any trustees of any school library concerning such library, 
or the books therein, or the use of such books; 

6 By any district meeting in relation to the library; 

7 By any other official act or decision concerning any other mat- 
ter under this act, or any other act pertaining to common schools, 
may appeal to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, who is 
hereby authorized and required to examine and decide the same; 

and his decision shall be final and conclusive, and not subject to Decision final 
question or review in any place or court whatever. 



I02 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Superintend- 
ent's powers 



§2 The Superintendent, in reference to such appeals, shall have 
power : 

1 To regulate the practice therein. 

2 To determine whether an appeal shall stay proceedings, and 
prescribe conditions upon which it shall or shall not so operate. 

3 To decline to entertain or to dismiss an appeal, when it shall 
appear that the appellant has no interest in the matter appealed 
from, and that the matter is not a matter of public concern, 
and that the person injuriously affected by the act or decision ap- 
pealed from is incompetent to appeal. 

4 To make all orders, by directing the levying of taxes or other- 
wise, which may, in his judgment, be proper or necessary to give 
effect to his decision. 

§3 The Superintendent shall file, arrange in the order of time, 
and keep in his office, so that they may be at all times accessible, 
all the proceedings on every appeal to him under this title, includ- 
Copies thereof ing his dccision and orders founded thereon ; and copies of all such 
papers and proceedings, authenticated by him under his seal of 
office, shall be evidence equally with the originals. 



Record of 
appeals 



evidence 



Loss of school 

moneys 

apportioned 



Forfeiture 



Neglect to 
sue for 
penalties 



TITLE XV 
Miscellaneous provisions 

ARTICLE I 

Of loss of school moneys apportioned; of forfeiture by school officers 
by reason of neglect to sue for penalties; of costs in suits which 
might have been the subjects of appeal to the Superintendent ■ of 
Public Instruction; of costs in suits, actions and proceedings other 
than appeals to the Superintendent of Public Instruction 

§1 Whenever the share of school moneys or any portion thereof, 
apportioned to any town or school district, or any money to which 
a town or school district would have been entitled, shall be lost, 
in consequence of any wilful neglect of official duty by any school 
commissioner, town clerk, trustees or clerks of school districts, the 
officer or officers guilty of such neglect shall forfeit to the town, 
or school district so losing the same, the full amount of such loss 
with interest thereon. 

§2 Where any penalty for the benefit of a school district, or of 
the schools of any school district, town, school commissioner dis- 
trict or county, shall be incurred, and the officer or officers, whose 
duty it is by law to sue for the same, shall wilfully and unreason- 
ably refuse or neglect to sue for the same, such officer or officers 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 10^ 

TITLE IS 

shall forfeit the amount of such penalty to the same use, and it Forfeiture 
shall be the duty of their successor or successors in office to sue 
for the same. 

§3 In any action against a school officer or officers, including Action against 

J. . - . , - school officers, 

supervisors of towns, m respect to their duties and powers under including 
this act, for any act performed by virtue of or under the color of 
their offices, or for any refusal or omission to perform any duty 
enjoined by law, and which might have been the subject of an ap- 
peal to the Superintendent, no costs shall be allowed to the plain- 
tiff, in cases where the court shall certify that it appeared on the 
trial that the defendants acted in good faith. But this provision 
shall not extend to suits for penalties, nor to suits or proceedings 
to enforce the decisions of the Superintendent. 

§4 Whenever the trustees of any school district, or any school Action by 
district officer or officers, have been or shall be instructed by a 
resolution of the district, at a meeting called for that purpose, to 
defend any action brought against them, or to bring or defend an 
action or proceeding touching any district property or claim of the 
district, or involving its rights or interests, or to continue any such 
action or defense, all their costs and reasonable expenses, as well Costs and 

expenses 

as all costs and damages adjudged against them, shall be a dis- thereof 
trict charge and shall be levied by tax. If the amount claimed 
by them be disputed by a district meeting, it shall be adjusted by 
the county judge of any county in which the district or any part 
of it is situated. 

§5 Whenever such trustees or any school district officer shall Actions 
have brought or defended any such action or proceeding, without direction 
any such resolution of the district meeting, and after the final de- 
termination of such suit or proceeding, shall present to any regular 
meeting of the inhabitants of the district, an account, in writing, 
of all costs, charges and expenses paid by him or them, with the 
items thereof, and verified by his or their oath or affirmation, and 
a majority of the voters at such meeting shall so direct, it shall be 
the duty of the trustees to cause the same to be assessed upon and ^^x for costs 
collected of the taxable property of said district, in the same man-^^'^'^'^P^"^®® 
ner as other taxes are by law assessed and collected; and, when so 
collected, the same shall be paid over, by an order upon the col- 
lector or treasurer to the officer or officers entitled to receive the 
same; but this provision shall not extend to suits for penalties, nor„ . 

'■ Proviso 

to suits or proceedings to enforce the decisions of the Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction. 

§6 Whenever an officer or officers mentioned in the last preced- ^ppg^i ^j^ 
ing section of this title shall have complied with the provisions of [^^J^^^^^^ 



104 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE IS 



Notice to be 
given 



Appointment 
of inhabitant 
to protect 
interest 



Service of 
copy of 
account upon 
town clerk 



Record of 
notice 



Appearance 
before county 
judge or 
district 
attorney 



Levy of tax 
for expenses 



Hearing 
before county 
judge and 
decision 
thereupon 



Costs 



Proviso as to 
payment 



said section, and the inhabitants shall have refused to direct che 
trustees to levy a tax for the payment of the costs, charges an- 
expenses therein mentioned, it shall be lawful for him or them, 
then and there, to give notice orally and publicly, that he will ap- 
peal to the county judge of the county ; and in case of his disability 
to act in the matter by reason of being disqualified, or otherwise, 
then to the district attorney of the county in which the school - 
house of said district is located, from the refusal of said meeting 
to vote a tax for the payment of said claim, and the inhabitants 
may, then and there, or at any subsequent district meeting, appoint 
one or more of the inhabitants of the district to protect the rights 
and interests of the district upon said appeal. And the officer or 
officers before mentioned shall thereupon, within lo days, serve 
upon the clerk of said district (or if there be no such clerk, upon 
the town clerk of the town) a copy of the aforesaid account, so 
sworn to, together with a notice, in writing, that on a certain day 
therein specified he or they intend to present such account to the 
county judge or to the district attorney, as the case may be, for 
settlement. And the clerk shall record such notice, together with 
the copy of the account, and the same shall be subject to the in- 
spection of the inhabitants of the district. And it shall be the duty 
of the person or persons appointed by any district meeting for that 
purpose, to appear before the county judge or the district attor- 
ney, as the case may be, on the day mentioned in the notice fore- 
said, and to protect the rights of the district upon such settlement; 
and the expenses incurred in the performance of this duty shall be 
a charge upon said district, and the trustees, upon presentation of 
the account of such expenses, with the proper voucher therefor, 
may levy, a tax therefor, or add the same to any other tax to be 
levied by them; and their refusal to levy said tax for the payment 
of said expenses, shall be subject to an appeal to the Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction. 

§7 Upon the appearance of the parties, or upon due proof of 
service of the notice and copy of the account, the county judge shall 
examine into the matter and hear the proofs and allegations pre- 
sented by the parties, and decide by order whether or not the ac- 
count, or any and what portion thereof, ought justly be charged 
upon the district, with costs and disbursements to such officer or 
officers, in his discretion, which costs and disbursements shall not 
exceed the sum of $30, and the decision of the county judge shall 
be final; but no portion of such account shall be so ordered to be 
paid which shall appear to such judge to have arisen from the wil- 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW IO5 



TITLE 15 



ful neglect or misconduct of the claimant. The account with the Evidence of 
oath of the party claiming the same shall be prima facie evidence account 
of the correctness thereof. The county judge may adjourn the Adj^o^rnment 
hearing from time to time, as justice shall seem to require. 

§8 It shall be the duty of the trustees of any school district, Re^^m-d of 
within 30 days after service of a copy of such order upon them 
or upon the district clerk, and notice thereof to them, or any two 
of them, to cause the same to be entered at length in the book of 
record of said district, and to raise the amount thereby directed 
to be paid, by a tax upon the district, to be by them assessed and 
levied in the same manner as a tax voted by the district. 

ARTICLE 2 
Changes in textbooks 
§Q The boards of education, or such bodies as perform the func- Adoption and 

. .. .,, ,.. designation of 

tions of such boards m the several cities, villages and union tree textbooks 
school districts of this state, shall have power and it shall be their 
duty to adopt and designate textbooks to be used in the schools 
under their charge in their respective districts. In the common 
school districts in the state the textbooks to be used in the schools 
therein shall be designated at any annual school meeting by a two 
thirds vote of all the legal voters present and voting at such school 
meeting. 

§10 When a textbook shall have been adopted for use in any of Change of 

1 • 1 1 • 1 • ■ 1 1 ■ 1 • 1 textbooks 

the public or common schools m this state, as provided m the ninth 
section of this title, it shall not be lawful to supersede the textbook 
so adopted by any other book within a period of five years from 
the time of such adoption, except upon a three fourths vote of the 
board of education, or of such body as performs the function of 
such board, where such board has made the designation, or upon 
a three fourths vote of the legal voters present and voting at the 
annual school meeting in any common school district. 

§ 1 1 Any person or persons violating any of the provisions of this Penalty for 

1 1 • 1 1 .- 1 1 ,ft. violation of 

act shall be liable to a penalty of not less than $50 nor more than provisions 
$100 for every such violation, to be sued for by any taxpayer of 
the school district, and recovered before any justice of the peace, 
said fine, when collected, to be paid to the collector or treasurer 
for the benefit of said school district. 

ARTICLE 3 
Care of code of public instruction 
§12 The trustee or trustees of each school district are hereby Trustees 
made the custodians of the code of public instruction belonging o^code*"^ 



I06 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

TITLE 15 

to such school district, and shall deliver the same to their successor 
Replacement or succcssors in officc. And in case such copy of said code shall 

in case of loss r I^ r ^ 

have been lost or destroyed through or by means ot the fault or 
negligence of the trustee or trustees, the trustee so permitting the 
- same to be lost or destroyed shall, at their own expense, procure 
a copy of the latest edition of the code of public instruction and de- 
liver the same to their successor or successors in office in lieu of 
the copy so lost or destroyed. 
Penalty §13 Evcry trustcc who fails to comply with the provisions of the 

foregoing section shall forfeit the sum of $25. This penalty shall 
be sued for by the supervisor of the town and shall be used in the 
purchase of books for the school library. 

ARTICLE 4 

Contracts between school districts and hoards of education in other 

districts, villages and cities 

Contract for '§14 Whenever any school district, by a vote of a majority of 

children the qualified voters present and voting thereon, shall empower the 

trustees or board of education thereof, the said trustees or board 

' of education shall enter into a written contract with the trustees 

or boards of education consenting thereto, of any district, village 
or city, whereby all or part of the children of such district may 
be entitled to be taught in the public schools of such city, village 
or school district for such period as said authorities may agree 
upon not exceeding one full school year. Upon filing a copy of 
such contract, duly certified by the trustees of each of such school 
districts, or by the secretary of the board of education of such city 
or village in the office of the State Superintendent of Public In- 
struction, such school district shall, after such contract has been 
approved by the State Superintendent, be deemed to have em- 
ployed a competent teacher for the period of such contract. When- 
ever the period of such contract or the period of such contract to- 
gether with the time school is actually taught in said district shall 
amount to at least i6o days and the contract shall include all the 

j children of school age in said district, said district shall be entitled 

to receive one distributive district quota; if said district maintains 
a home school and contracts for a part only of the children, it shall 
be entitled to one teacher's quota in addition to its district quota 
for not less than 12 pupils attending under such contract; but in 
no instance shall any school district receive a greater apportion- 
ment than the total expense incurred in payment of tuition and 

'As amended by chapter 265, laws of 1903, and by section i, chapter 322, laws of 1904. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW IO7 

TITLE IS 

transportation of pupils as shown by the report of the trustee to 
the school commissioner. 

'§15 The board of education of any city or village, and the trus- 
tees of any school district so contracting with any other school ^ 
district, shall report for the pupils attending such schools from ' 
such adjoining districts to the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, the same as though they were residents of such city, village 
or school district. 

§16 It shall be the duty of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 1;^^*;^;^^^'°"^ 
tion to give to school commissioners such directions as may, in his ^^^"''^'J.^^ ^y° 
judgment, be required and proper in relation to the reports to be ^''^'^^'^'^^ 
made by the trustees of such districts to school commissioners. 

ARTICLE 5- 
Contracts with teachers 

2§ 1 7 All officers or boards of officers who shall employ any teacher contracts to 
to teach in any of the public schools of this state shall, at the time to tochers 
of such employment, make and deliver to such teacher, or cause 
to be made and delivered, a contract in writing, signed by said 
officer, or by the members of said board, or by some person duly 
authorized by said board, to represent them in the premises, in 
which the detail of the agreement between the parties, and par- 
ticularly the length of the term of employment, the amount of 
compensation and the time or times when such compensation shall 
be due and payable shall be clearly and definitely set forth. But Proviso 
nothing herein contained shall be deemed to abridge or otherwise 
affect the term of employment of any teacher now or hereafter em- 
ployed in the public schools, nor to repeal or affect any provision 
of special laws concerning the employment or removal of teachers 
now in force in any particular locality. 

§i8 The pay of any teacher employed in the public schools of Pay of 
this state shall be due and payable at least as often as at the end when due 
of each calendar month of the term of employment. 

ARTICLE 6 
Physiology and hygiene in the public schools 
^§19 The nature of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics and Provisions for 
their effects on the human system shall be taught in connection pupils 
with the various divisions of physiology and hygiene, as thor- 
oughly as are other branches in all schools under state control or 

^As amended by section 2, chapter 265, laws of 1903. 
''As amended by section 20, chapter 264, laws of 1896. 
3As amended by section i, chapter 901, laws of 1896. 



io8 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Minimum of 
time 



Oral instruc- 
tion where 
permissible 



TITLE 15 

supported wholly or in part by public money of the stdte, and 
also in all schools connected with reformatory institutions. All 
pupils in the above mentioned schools below the second year of 
the high school and above the third year of school work com- 
puting from the beginning of the lowest primary, not kinder- 
garten year, or in corresponding classes of ungraded schools, shall 
be taught and shall study this subject every year with suitable 
textbooks in the hands of all pupils, for not less than three lessons 
a week for 10 or more weeks, or the equivalent of the same in each 
year, and must pass satisfactory tests in this as in other studies, 
before promotion to the next succeeding year's work; except that 
where there are nine or more school years below the high school, 
the study may be omitted in all years above the eighth year and 
below the high school, by such pupils as have passed the required 
tests of the eighth year. In all schools above mentioned, all 
pupils in the lowest three primary, not kindergarten, school years 
or in corresponding classes in ungraded schools shall, each year, 
be instructed in this subject orally for not less than two lessons a 
week for 10 weeks, or the equivalent of the same in each year, by 
teachers using textbooks adapted for such oral instruction as a 
guide and standard, and such pupils must pass such tests in this 
as may be required in other studies before promotion to the next 
succeeding year's work. Nothing in this act shall be construed 
as prohibiting or requiring the teaching of this subject in kinder- 
garten schools. The local school authorities shall provide needed 
facilities and definite time and place for this branch in the regular 
Duty of school courses of study. The textbooks in the pupils' hands shall be 
graded to the capacities of fourth year, intermediate, grammar 
and high school pupils, or to corresponding classes in ungraded 
schools. For students below high school grade, such textbooks 
shall give at least one fifth their space, and for students of high 
school grade, shall give not less than 20 pages, to the nature and 
effects of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics. This subject must 
be treated in the textbooks in connection with the various divisions 
of physiology and hygiene, and pages on this subject in a separate 
chapter at the end of the book shall not be counted in determining 
the minimum. No textbook on physiology not conforming to this 
act shall be used in the public schools, except so long as may be 
necessary to fulfill the conditions of any legal adoption existing at 
the time of the passage of this act. All Regents examinations in 
physiology and hygiene shall include a due proportion of questions 
on the nature of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics, and their 
effects on the human system. 



Textbook 
requirements 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW lOp 

TITLE 15 

^§20 In all normal schools, teachers training classes and teachers Teachers to 
institutes, adequate time and attention shall be given to instruction tbns^^^"^"^^' 
in the best methods of teaching this branch, and no teacher shall 
be licensed who has not passed a satisfactory examination in the 
subject, and the best methods of teaching it. On satisfactory evi- 
dence that any teacher has wilfully refused to teach this subject as 
provided in this act, the State Superintendent of Public Instruc- Penalty for 

1 1 T r 1 1 AT 11- noncompliance 

tion shall revoke the license 01 such teacher. No public money of 
the state shall be apportioned by the State Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Instruction or paid for the benefit of any city until the super- 
intendent of schools therein shall have filed with the treasurer or 
chamberlain of such city an affidavit and with the State Superin- 
tendent of Public Intsruction a duplicate of such affidavit that he 
has made thorough investigation as to the facts, and that to the 
best of his knowledge, information and belief all the provisions of this 
act have been complied with in all the schools under his super- 
vision in such city during the last preceding legal school year; nor 
shall any public money of the state be apportioned by the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction or by school commissioners 
or paid for the benefit of any school district, until the president of 
the board of trustees, or in the case of common school districts the 
trustee or some one member of the board of trustees, shall have 
filed with the school commissioner having jurisdiction an affidavit 
that he has made thorough investigation as to the facts, and that 
to the best of his knowledge, information and belief, all the pro- 
visions of this act have been complied with in such district, which 
affidavit shall be included in the trustees' annual report, and it 
shall be the duty of every school commissioner to file with the 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, an affidavit in connec- 
tion with his annual report showing all districts in his jurisdiction 
that have and those that have not complied with all the provisions 
of this act, according to the best of his knowledge, information and 
belief, based on a thorough investigation by him as to the facts; 
nor shall any public money of the state be apportioned or paid for 
the benefit of any teachers training class, teachers institute or other 
school mentioned herein, until the officer having jurisdiction or 
supervision thereof shall have filed with the State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction an affidavit that he has made a thorough in- 
vestigation as to the facts, and that to the best of his knowledge, 
information and belief, all the provisions of this act relative thereto 
have been complied with. The principal of each normal school 

- lAsamemied by section I, chapter 901, laws of 1896. 



TITLE 15 



1 10 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

in the state shall, at the close of each of their school years, file with 
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction an affidavit that 
all the provisions of this law, applicable thereto, have been com- 
plied with during the school year just terminated, and until such 
affidavit shall be filed no warrant shall be issued by the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction for the payment by the 
Treasurer of any part of the money appropriated for such school. 
It shall be the duty of the State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion to provide blank forms of affidavit required herein for use by 
the local school officers, and he shall include in his annual report 
a statement showing every school, city, or district which has failed 
to comply with all the provisions of this act during the preceding 
school year. On complaint by appeal to the State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction by any patron of the schools mentioned in 
the last preceding section, or by any citizen, that any provision of 
this act has not been complied with in any city or district, the 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall make immediate 
investigation, and on satisfactory evidence of the truth of such 
complaint, shall thereupon and thereafter withhold all public 
money of the state to which such city or district would otherwise 
be entitled, until all the provisions of this act shall be complied with 
in said city or district, and shall exercise his power of reclamation 
and deduction under section 9 of article i of title 2 of the consoli- 
dated school law. 

ARTICLE 7 

Free instruction in drawing 
§21 In each of the state normal schools the course of study 
industrial or shall cmbracc instruction in industrial or free-hand drawing. 

free-hand 

drawing T^c board of education in each city in this state shall cause free 

instruction to be given in industrial or free-hand drawing in at 

least one department of the schools under their charge. The 

board of education of each union free school district shall cause 

free instruction to be given in industrial or free-hand drawing in 

the schools under their charge, unless excused therefrom by the 

Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

Evening §2 2 The board of education, or other body having supervision 

free°Ptr°uc- of the public schools in any city or union free school district in 

triS drawing this State, is hereby authorized to establish and maintain evening 

schools for free instruction in industrial drawing, whenever the 

city authorities in any city or the qualified electors duly convened 

in any union free school district shall so direct, and shall make 

provision for the maintenance of such schools. In addition to the 



Instruction in 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW III 

TITLE IS 

powers now conferred by law upon the authorities of any city, or Power to 

1 , r • r iii',-i-.i raise moneys 

Upon the electors of any union tree school district m the state, therefor 
such authorities and such electors shall also have power, when- 
ever they shall think it advisable, to raise such moneys as shall 
be necessary to carry out the purposes of this act. 

ARTICLE 8 
Vocal music in public schools 
§2^ In each of the state normal schools the course of study ^''^^ .^"striic- 

" ^ -' tion m vocal 

may embrace instruction in vocal music. The boards of education "^^sic 
in each city, and in each union free school district incorporated 
under the laws of this state, may cause free instruction to be given 
in vocal music in the schools under their charge. The Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction may provide instruction in vocal 
music in all teachers institutes held throughout the state. 

ARTICLE 9 
Free kindergartens 
i§2 4 The school authorities of any union free or common school Establishment 
district, located in any county having less than 1,000,000 inhabi- garten in cer- 

, . 1 - . . P , . , tain localities 

tants, may establish and maintain one or more tree kindergarten 
schools The moneys for the support of such school shall be Money for 
raised in like manner as for the support of the other public schools 
of such district. No child under the age of 4 years shall be ad- Admission of 
mitted to the schools, and the local school authorities are hereby 
empowered to fix the highest age limit of children who may attend. 
All teachers employed in these schools shall be licensed in accord- Teachers 
ance with rules and regulations established by the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, and' shall each share in the distribution of 
district quotas. The attendance of children under the age of 5 Report of 
years who may be enrolled in the schools shall be reported sepa- 
rately and shall be counted in the distribution of public money. 

ARTICLE 10 
Industrial training in the public schools 
§25 Boards or departments of education of cities and villages, industrial 
and of union free schools and trustees of public school districts , departments 
are hereby authorized and empowered to establish and maintain ^-^^^o^^'^'i 
a department or departments in the schools under their charge 
for industrial training and for teaching and illustrating the manual 

'As amended by section 21, chapter 246, laws of 1896, 



112 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Purchase of 
material, 
employment 
of instructors, 
etc. 



Tax for estab- 
lishment and 
maintenance 
of department 



Industrial 
training in 
normal schools 



or industrial arts, and the principles underlying the same; and for 
that purpose they are respectively authorized to purchase and use 
such material and apparatus, and to establish and maintain such 
shops, and to employ such instructor or instructors, in addition to 
the other teachers in said schools, as in their judgment shall be 
deemed necessary or proper whenever the authorities or electors 
respectively now authorized by law to raise money by taxation 
for school purposes, shall make provision for the maintenance of 
such departments. 

§26 All authorities and electors, respectively, now authorized 
by law to levy and raise taxes for school purposes, are hereby 
authorized to levy and raise by taxation, in addition to any amount 
or amounts which they are now, respectively, in any city, village 
or district, authorized by law to raise for school purposes, and in 
the same manner, and at a regular or special meeting, the neces- 
sary funds to establish and maintain such industrial departments 
as aforesaid. 

§27 The state normal and training schools which are or here- 
after may be established in this state, hereby are and shall be 
required to include in their courses of instruction the principles 
underlying the manual or industrial arts, and also the practical 
training in the same, to such an extent as the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction may prescribe, and to such further extent as 
the local boards, respectively, of said normal and training schools 
may prescribe. 

ARTICLE II 

Schools for colored children 
^§28 The school authorities of any city or incorporated village, 
the schools of which are or shall be organized under title 8 of this 
act, or under special act, may, when they shall deem it expedient, 
establish a separate school or separate schools for the instruction 
of children and youth of African descent, resident therein, and 
over 5 and under 21 years of age; and such school or schools shall 
be supported in the same manner and to- the same extent as the 
school or schools supported therein for white children, and they 
shall be subject to the same rules and regulations, and be fur- 
nished with facilities for instruction equal to those furnished to 
the white schools therein. 
Separate §29 The trustces of any union school district, or of any school 

union districts district Organized under a special act, may, when the inhabitants 



Colored schools 
in cities and 
villages 



How sup- 
ported, etc. 



.^Section 28 of article 11 repealed by section 2, chapter 492, laws of 1900. Such repeal to 
take effect Sep. i, 1900. See p. 185. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW II5' 

TITLE 15 

of any district shall so determine, by resolution, at any annual 
meeting, or at a special meeting called for that purpose, establish 
a separate school or separate schools for the instruction of such 
colored children resident therein, and such schools shall be supported 
in' the same manner and receive the same care, and be furnished 
with the same facilities for instruction, as the white schools therein. 

§30 No person shall be employed to teach any of such schools 0^^^^^^^^^*^°"^ 
who shall not, at the time of such employment, be legally qualified. 

§31 The colored schools in the city of New York, now existing ^oio^ed^^ 
and in operation, shall hereafter be classed and known and be con-^'^^^ York city 
tinued as ward schools, and primaries, with their present teachers, 
unless such teachers are removed in the manner provided by law, 
and such schools shall be under the control and management of Control and 

rr- r ^ • -i • ^ ^ ^ management 

the school officers of the respective wards m which they are located 
in the same manner and to the same extent as other ward schools, 
and shall be open for the education of pupils for whom admission 
is sought, without regard to race or color. 

I ARTICLE 12 

' Orphan schools 

S^2 The schools of the several incorporated orphan asylum Participation 

• • • 1 ■ 1 •. 1 -1 • r AT Vr 1 in distribution 

societies m this state, other than those m the city of New York, of public 

. . moneys 

shall participate m the distribution of the school moneys, in the 
same manner and to the same extent, in proportion to +he num- 
ber of children educated therein, as the common schools in their Rules and 

regulations 

respective cities or districts. The schools of said societies shall 
be subject to the rules and regulations of the common schools in 
such cities or districts, but shall remain under the immediate 
management and direction of the said societies as heretofore. 

ARTICLE 13 

Indian schools 
I-XT. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be charged Duty of Super- 

^^^ . -^ ^ intendent of 

with providing the means of education for all the Indian children Public 

. . Instruction 

m the state. He shall cause to be ascertained the condition of the 
various bands in the state in respect to education ; he shall establish 
schools in such places, and of such character and description as he 
shall deem necessary; he shall employ superintendents for such 
schools, and shall, with the concurrence of the Comptroller and Sec- 
retary of State, cause to be erected, where necessary, convenient 
buildings for their accommodation. 



114 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Cooperation 
of Indians 



Protection of 
Indian title 
to lands 



Children 
entitled to 
draw money 



Enumeration 
of children 



Annual 
appropriation 



Vouchers and 
receipts for 
expenditures 



Report to 
Legislature 



Apportion- 
ment of state 
school moneys 



§34 In the discharge of the duties imposed by this act, the said 
Superintendent shah endeavor to secure the cooperation of all the 
everal bands of Indians, and for this purpose, shall visit, by him- 
self or his authorized representative, all the reservations where they 
reside, lay the matter before them in public assembly, inviting them 
to assist either by appropriating their public moneys to this object, 
or by setting apart lands and erecting suitable buildings, or by fur- 
nishing labor or materials for such buildings, or in any other way 
which he or they may suggest as most effectual for the promotion 
of this object. 

§3 5 In any contract which may be entered into with said In- 
dians, for the use or occupancy of any land for school grounds, sites 
or buildings, care shall be taken to protect the title of the Indians 
to their lands, and to reserve to the state the right to remove or 
otherwise dispose of all improvements made at the expense of the 
state. 

§36 The Indian children in the state, between the ages of 4 and 
21 years, shall be entitled to draw public money the same as white 
children. The Superintendent shall cause an annual enumera- 
tion of said Indian children to be made, and shall see that the pub- 
lic money, to which they are ratably entitled, is devoted exclu- 
sively to their education. 

§37 To carry into effect the provisions of this title the Legisla- 
ture shall annually appropriate the sum of $6000 out of the reve- 
nues of the common school fund, to be paid by the Treasurer, on 
the warrant of the Comptroller, from time to time, to the order of 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

§38 The Superintendent shall take and file in his office, vouch- 
ers and receipts for all the expenditures made under this act, subject 
to the inspection of the joint committee to examine the accounts 
of the auditor and treasurer ; and shall annually report to the Legis- 
lature all his doings, by virtue of the authority vested in him; and 
for this purpose said Superintendent may require full and detailed 
reports in such form as he may prescribe, from those having the 
immediate supervision of any Indian schools in this state. 

§39 For the support of the Indian schools, already established 
and which may be established, the Superintendent of Public In- 
struction, in his annual general apportionment of the state school 
moneys appropriated for the support of common schools, shall make 
an equitable apportionment, as provided by section 5 of title 2 of 
this act; and the moneys which shall be thus apportioned shall be 
paid out of the treasury upon the warrant of the Superintendent, 
countersigned by the Comptroller. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW II5 

TITLE IS 

ARTICLE 14 
Deaf and dumb and blind institutions 
§40 All the institutions for the instruction of the deaf and dumb, Visitation of 

institutions by 

and blind, and all other similar institutions, incorporated under Supenntendent 
the laws of the state, or that may be hereafter incorporated, shall instraction 
be subject to the visitation of the Superintendent of Public In- 
struction, and it shall be his duty: 

1 To inquire, from time to time, into the expenditures of each Duties of 

11 r ■ • 11- Super- 

mstitution, and the systems of instruction pursued therein, respec- intendent 
tively. 

2 To visit and inspect, or cause to be visited and inspected, the 
schools belonging thereto, and the lodgings and accommodations 
of the pupils. 

3 To ascertain by a comparison with other similar institutions, 
whether any improvements in instruction and discipline can be 
made; and for that purpose to appoint, from time to time, suitable 
persons to visit the schools. 

4 To suggest to the directors of such institutions and to the 
Legislature such improvements as he shall judge expedient. 

5 To make an annual report to the Legislature on all the matters Annual report 
before enumerated, and particularly as to the condition of the 
schools, the improvement of the pupils, and their treatment in 

respect to board and lodging. 

'§41 All deaf and dumb persons resident in this state and up- 
wards of 12 years of age, who shall have been resident in this state 
for one year immediately preceding the application, or. if a minor, 
whose parent or parents, or, if an orphan, whose nearest friend 
shall have been resident in this state for one year immediately pre- 
ceding the application, shall be eligible to appointments as state 
pupils in one of the deaf and dumb institutions of this state, au- 
thorized by law to receive such pupils; and all blind persons of suit- 
able age and similar qualifications shall be eligible to appointment 
to the institution for the blind in the city of New York, or in the 
village of Batavia, as follows: All such as are residents of the coun- 
ties of New York, Kings, Queens, SufEolk, Nassau, Richmond, West- 
chester, Putnam and Rockland, shall be sent to the institution for 
the blind in the city of New York. Those who reside in other 
counties of the state shall be sent to the institution for the blind 
in the village of Batavia. All such appointments, with the excep- 
tion of those to the institution for the blind in the village of Ba- 

'As amended by chapter 62, laws of 1903. 



Il6 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

TITLE IS 

tavia, shall be made by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
upon application, and in those cases in which, in his opinion, the 
parents or guardians of the applicants are able to bear a portion 
of the expense, he may impose conditions whereby some propor- 
tionate share of expense of educating and clothing such pupils shall 
be paid by their parents, guardians or friends in such manner and 
at such times as the Superintendent shall designate, which condi- 
tions he may modify from time to time, if he shall deem it expe- 
dient to do so. 
state pupils, §42 Each pupil so received into either of the institutions afore- 
suppor o , e c. ^^^^ shall be provided with board, lodging and tuition; and the 
directors of the institution shall receive for each pupil so provided 
for, the sum of per annum, in quarterly payments, to 

be paid by the Treasurer of the State, on the warrant of the Comp- 
troller, to the treasurer of said institution, on his presenting a bill 
showing the actual time and number of such pupils attending the 
institution, and which bill shall be signed by the president and 
Term of Secretary of the institution, and verified by their oaths. The regu- 

instruction j^^. ^^^^ ^f iustructiou for such pupils shall be five years; but the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction may, in his discretion, ex- 
tend the term of any pupil for a period not exceeding three years. 
The pupils provided for in this and the preceding section of this 
title shall be designated state pupils; and all the existing provi- 
sions of law applicable to state pupils now in said institutions shall 
apply to pupils herein provided for. 
Regulations as §43 The Superintendent of Public Instruction may make such 

to admission , . ^ . - ^. . , , 1 ,. 

of pupils regulations and give such directions to parents and guardians, m 

relation to the admission of pupils into either of the above named 
institutions, as will prevent pupils entering the same at irregular 
periods. 

§43a The supervisors of any county in this state from which 
county state pupils may be hereafter appointed to any institution 
for the instruction of the deaf and dumb, whose parents or guard- 
ians are unable to furnish them with suitable clothing, are hereby 
authorized and required to raise in each year for this purpose for 
each such pupil from said county, the sum of $30. 

ARTICLE 15 i 

Arbor day 

§44 The Friday following the first day of May in each year shall 
be known throughout this state as arbor day. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW II7 

TITLE IS 

§45 It shall be the duty of the authorities of every public school Duty of school 
in this state to assemble the scholars in their charge on that day 
in the school building, or elsewhere, as they may deem proper, and 
to provide for and conduct, under the general supervision of the 
city superintendent or the school commissioner, or other chief offi- 
cers having the general oversight of the public schools in each city 
or district, such exercises as shall tend to encourage the planting, 
protection and preservation of trees and shrubs, and an acquain- 
tance with the best methods to be adopted to accomplish such 
results. 

§46 The State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall have Course of 

■ 1 r J • i , • r ■ 1 • exercise and 

power to prescribe from time to time a course of exercises and m - instruction 

struction in the subjects hereinbefore mentioned, which shall be 

adopted and observed by the public school authorities on arbor 

day, and upon receipt of copies of such course, sufficient in number 

to supply all the schools under their supervision, the school com- Distribution 

missioner or city superintendent aforesaid shall promptly provide 

each of the schools under his or their charge with a copy, and cause 

it to be observed. 

§47 The Legislature shall annually make an appropriation for Annual 

1 . . ^ 1 . , , . appropriation 

carrying out the provisions 01 this act, upon the recommendation 
of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

ARTICLE 16 
Miscellaneous 

§48 The Superintendent of Public Instruction, so soon as may . 

be after the passage of this act, shall cause to be prepared imder o^ school law 
his supervision and to be printed, an edition of this statute, with 
brief annotations embodying such of the decisions of the courts of 
the state, and of the superintendents of public instruction as are 
applicable thereto, and such comments, explanations and instruc- 
tions as he shall deem necessary or expedient, and to furnish to 
each of the school districts of the state one copy thereof, and the 
same shall be deposited with the trustee or trustees, and kept by 
him or them for the use of the inhabitants, as provided in article 
3 of this title. 

§49 All provisions of law repugnant to or inconsistent with theg^^.^^ clause 
provisions of this act are hereby repealed, saving always all rights 
of action vested under such prior provisions, and proceedings com- 
menced for the assertion thereof; but nothing herein contained, 
unless it be so expressed, shall be construed, unless by inevitable 



Il8 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

TITLE IS 

implication, to revive any act or portion of an act heretofore re- 
pealed ; nor to impair or in any manner affect or change any special 
law touching the schools or school system of any city or incorpor- 
ated village of the state, unless the same is so stated in this act. 
Laws repealed §50 Of the laws enumerated in the schedule hereto annexed, 
that portion specified in the last column is repealed. Such repeal 
shall not revive a law repealed by any law hereby repealed, but 
shall include all laws amendatory of the laws hereby repealed. 

*§5i Each school commissioner in respect to the territory within 
his district shall have the power, with the approval of the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, to set ofE by itself any neigh- 
borhood adjoining any other state of the Union, where it shall be 
found most convenient for the inhabitants to send their children 
to a school in such adjoining state, and to deliver to the town clerk 
of the town in which it lies, in whole or in part, a description of 
each such separate neighborhood. He shall also prepare a notice, 
describing such neighborhood, and appointing a time and place for 
the first neighborhood meeting, and deliver such notice to a taxable 
inhabitant of such neighborhood. It shall be the duty of such in- 
habitant to notify every other inhabitant of the neighborhood, 
qualified to vote at the meeting, by reading the notice in his hear- 
ing, or, in case of his absence from home, by leaving a copy thereof, 
or so much thereof as relates to the time, place and object of the 
meeting, at the place of his abode, at least six days before the time 
of the meeting. In case such meeting shall not be held, and in the 
opinion of the commissioner it shall be necessary to hold such meet- 
ing before the time herein fixed for the first annual meeting, he 
shall deliver another such notice to a taxable inhabitant of the 
neighborhood, who shall serve it as hereinbefore provided. 
Annual ^§52 The annual meeting of each neighborhood shall be held on 

neighborhood the first Tucsday of August in each year, at the hour and place 
fixed by the last previous neighborhood meeting; or, if such hour 
and place has not been so fixed, then at the hour and place of such 
last meeting; or, if such place be no longer accessible, then at such 
other place as the trustee, or, if there be no trustee, the clerk, shall 
in the notices designate. The proceedings of no neighborhood 
meeting, annual or special, shall be held illegal for want of a due 
notice to all the persons qualified to vote thereat, unless it shall ap- 
pear that the omission to give such notice was wilful and fraudu- 
lent. The inhabitants of any neighborhood, entitled to vote, when 
assembled in any annual meeting or any special meeting called by 

^As amended by section 2, chapter 293, laws of 1897. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW II9 

TITLE IS 

the commissioner as above provided, shall have power, by a ma- 
jority vote of those present, to appoint a chairman for the time 
being, and to choose a neighborhood clerk and one trustee, and to 
fill vacancies in office. The provisions of sections 10, 11, 12 and 13 
of article i of title 7 of this act, shall apply to and govern such 
meeting, so far as the same can in substance be applied to the pro- 
ceedings; and the provisions of sections 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30, 
31 and 32 of title 7 of this act shall apply to and govern the officers 
of such neighborhood, so far as the same can in substance be ap- 
plied thereto. 

^§53 The neighborhood clerk shall keep a record of the proceed- Record of 

procGGciiiiss 

ings of his neighborhood, and of the reports of the trustees, and by clerk 

deliver the same to his successor. In case such neighborhood shall 

be annexed to a district within this state its records shall be filed 

in the office of the clerk of such district. The trustee shall, be- Report of 

tween the 25th day of July and the first day of August in every 

year, make his annual report to the school commissioner, and file 

it in the office of the clerk of the town of which the neighborhood 

is a part. Such report shall specify the whole amount of public 

moneys received during the year and from what public officer, and 

the manner in which it was expended; the whole number of such 

children as can be included in the district trustees' report residing 

in the neighborhood on the 30th day of June prior to the making 

of such report ; and any other matters which the Superintendent 

of Public Instruction may require. 

'§54 The Superintendent of PubHc Instruction shall apportion Apportionment 
to each separate neighborhood which shall have duly reported, Superintendent 
such fixed sum as will, in his opinion, be equitably equivalent to 
its portion of all the state school moneys upon the basis of distri- 
bution established by this act ; such sum to be payable out of the 
contingent fund hereinbefore established. The school commis- 
sioner or commisi-ioners shall set apart and credit from the state 
and other school moneys apportioned to each separate neighbor- 
hood the amount apportioned to it by the State Superintendent. 
The amount so apportioned shall be set apart to the town in which 
such neighborhood is situated, and the commissioner or commis- 
sioners shall certify the same to the supervisor thereof; and the 
same shall be paid over to the supervisor for distribution by him 
as a part of the school moneys of the town in the manner provided 
by article 2 of title 2 of this act. It shall be the duty of such super- 
visor to disburse said moneys upon the order of the trustee of such 



'As amended by section 2, chapter 293, laws of 1897. 



I20 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Definitions 



Attendance 
required 



neighborhood in favor of any teacher of a school in an adjoining 
state, recog'iiized by him and patronized by the inhabitants of such 
neighborhood; and to include a statement thereof in the account 
required by this act to be made by him of the school moneys re- 
ceived by him and the disbursement thereof. 

TITLE XVI 
Compulsory education law 

§1 Short title. This chapter shall be known as the compulsory 
education law. 

§2 Definitions. When used in this act, the term school authori- 
ties means the trustees or board of education or corresponding 
officers, whether one or more, and by whatever name known, of 
a city, union free school district, common school district, or school 
district created by special law; the term persons in parental rela- 
tion to a child, includes the parents, guardians or other persons, 
whether one or more, lawfully having the care, custody or con- 
trol of such child. A child under i6 years of age required by the 
persons in parental relation to such a child, to attend upon lawful 
instruction at a school or elsewhere, upon which such child is 
entitled to attend, is lawfully required to attend such school. A 
child between 8 and i6 years of age, who is required by law to 
attend upon instruction, and is required by the persons in parental 
relation to such child, to attend upon lawful instruction at school 
or elsewhere, upon which such child is entitled to attend, is law- 
fully required to attend upon such instruction, and if not required 
b}^ the persons in parental relation to such child to attend upon 
an}^ instruction, is lawfully required to attend a public school. 

i§3 Required attendance upon instruction. Every child be- 
tween 8 and i6 years of age, in proper physical and mental con- 
dition to attend school, shall regularly attend upon instruction 
at a school in which at least six common school branches of read- 
ing, spelling, writing, arithmetic, English grammar and geography 
are taught, or upon equivalent instruction by a competent teacher 
elsewhere than at school, as follows: every such child between 14 
and 16 years of age, not regularl}^ and lawfully engaged in any 
useful employment or service, and every such child between 8 and 
14 years of age, shall so attend upon instruction as many days 
annually, during the period between the first days of October and 
the following June, as the public school of the district or city in 
which such child resides, shall be in session during the same period. 



^As amended by section i, chapter 606, laws of if 
1903- 



5, and by section 21, chapter 459, laws of 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 121 

TITLE I 

Every boy between 14 and 16 years of age, who is engaged in any 
useful employment or service in a city of the first class or a city of 
the second class and who has not completed such course of study 
as is required for graduation from the elementary public schools 
of such city, and who does not hold either a certificate of gradua- 
tion from the public elementary school or the preacademic cer- 
tificate issued by the Regents of the University of the State of 
New York or the certificate of the completion of an elementary 
school issued by the Department of Public Instruction, 
shall attend the public evening schools of such city, 
or other evening schools offering an equivalent course of instruc- 
tion, for not less than six hours each week, for a period of not less 
than 16 weeks in each school year or calendar year. If any such 
child shall so attend upon instruction elsewhere than at a public 
school, such instruction shall be at least substantially equivalent 
to the instruction given to children of like age at the public school 
of the city or district in which such child resides ; and such attend- 
ance shall be for at least as raany hours of each day thereof as are 
required of children of like age at public schools; and no greater 
total amount of holidays and vacations shall be deducted from such 
attendance during the period such attendance is required than is 
allowed in such public school to children of like age. Occasional 
absences from such attendance, not amounting to irregular attend- 
ance in the fair meaning of the terra, shall be allowed upon such 
excuses only as would be allowed in like cases by the general rules 
and practice of such public school. 

'§4 Duties of persons in parental relation to children. Every Duties of 

, 1 . ^ ., 1 . , persons in 

person m parental relation to a child between 8 and 16 years of parental 
age, in proper physical and mental condition to attend school, 
shall cause such child to so attend upon instruction, or shall pre- 
sent to the school authorities of his city or district proof by affi- 
davit that he is unable to compel such child to so attend. A 
violation of this section shall be a misdemeanor, punishable for 
the first offense b}" a fine not exceeding $5, and for each subse- 
quent offense by a fine not exceeding $50 or by imprisonment 
not exceeding 30 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment. 
Courts of special sessions and police magistrates shall, subject 
to removal as provided in sections 57 and 58 of the Code of Crim- 
inal Procedure, have exclusive jurisdiction in the first instance 
to hear, try and determine charges of violations of this section 
within their respective jurisdictions. 

'As amended by section 2, chapter 606, laws of 1896, and by section 3, chapter 459, laws of 
1903. 



122 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



TITLE I 6 



'§5 Persons employing children unlawfully to be fined. It 

shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to employ 
any child under 14 years of age, in any business or service what- 
ever, during any part of the term during which the public schools 
of the district in which the child resides are in session ; or to employ 
any child between 14 and 16 years of age who does not, at the time 
of such employment, present a certificate signed by the superin- 
tendent of schools or by the principal or the principal teacher 
of the city or district in which the child resides or by the principal 
or the principal teacher of the school where the child has attended 
or is attending, or by such other officer as the school authorities 
may designate, certifying that such child during the 12 months 
next preceding his 14th birthday or during the 12 months next 
preceding his application for such certificate, has attended for not 
less than 130 days the public schools, or schools having an ele- 
mentary course equivalent thereto, in such city or district, and 
that such child can read and write easy English prose and is familiar 
with the fundamental operations of arithmetic; or to employ, in a 
city of the first class or a city of the second class, any child be- 
tween 14 and 16 years of age who has not completed such course 
of study as the public elementary schools of such city require 
for graduation from such schools and who does not hold either 
a certificate of graduation from the public elementary school or 
the preacademic certificate issued by the Regents of the Uni- 
versity of the State of New York or the certificate of the com- 
pletion of an elementary school issued by the Department 
of Public Instruction unless the employer of such child, 
if a boy, shall keep and shall display in the place where 
such child is employed and shall show whenever so requested by 
any attendance officer, factory inspector, or representative of the 
police department, a certificate signed by the school authorities 
or such school officers in said city as said school authorities shall 
designate, which school authorities, or officers designated by them, 
are hereby required to issue such certificates to those entitled to 
them not less frequently than once in each month during which 
said evening school is in session and at the close of the session of 
said evening school, stating that said child has been in attendance 
upon said evening school for not less than six hours each week for 
such number of weeks as will, when taken in connection with the 
number of weeks such evening school will be in session during the 

^As amended by section 4, chapter 459, laws of 1903, and section i, chapter 280, laws of 
190S 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 123- 

TITLE l6 

remainder of the current or calendar year, make up a total attend- 
ance on the part of said child in said evening school of not less 
than six hours per week for a period of not less than i6 weeks, and 
any person who shall employ any child contrary to the provisions 
of this section or who shall fail to keep and display certificates as 
to the attendance of employees in evening schools when such 
attendance is required by law shall, for each offense, forfeit and 
pay to the treasurer of the city or village, or to the supervisor of 
the town in which such child resides, a penalty of $50, the same, 
when paid, to be added to the public school moneys of the city, 
village or district in which such child resides. 

§6 Teachers records of attendance. An accurate record of the Record of 
attendance of all children between 8 and 16 years of age shall be 
kept by the teacher of every school, showing each day by the 
year, month, day of the month and day of the week, such attend- 
ance, and the number of hours in each day thereof; and each 
teacher upon whose instruction any such child shall attend else- 
where than at school, shall keep a like record of such attendance. 
Such records shall, at all times, be open to the attendance officers 
or other persons duly authorized by the school authorities of the 
city or district, who may inspect or copy the same; and every 
such teacher shall fully answer all inquiries lawfully made by 
such authorities, inspectors or other persons, and a wilful neglect 
or refusal so to answer any such inquiry shall be a misdemeanor. 

^§7 Attendance officers. The school authorities of each city. Attendance 
union free school district, or common school district whose limits ° 
include in whole or in part an incorporated village, shall appoint 
and may remove at pleasure one or more attendance officers of 
such city or district, and shall fix their compensation and may 
prescribe their duties not inconsistent with this act, and make 
rules and regulations for the performance thereof; and the super- 
intendent of schools shall supervise the enforcement of this act 
within such city or school district ; and the town board of each town 
shall appoint, subject to the written approval of the school com- 
missioner of the district, one or more attendance officers, whose 
jurisdiction shall extend over all school districts in said town, and 
which are not by this section otherwise provided for, and shall 
fix their compensation, which shall be a town charge; and such 
attendance officers, appointed by said board, shall be removable 
at the pleasure of the school commissioner in whose commissioner's 
district such town is situated. 



1 As amended by section 3, chapter 606 laws of 1896, and section 2, chapter 280, Jaws of 
1905. - - . - 



124 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Arrest of 
truants 



Truant 
schools 



'§8 Arrest of truants. The attendance officer may arrest with- 
out warrant any child between 8 and i6 years of age found from 
his home, and who then is a truant from instruction upon which 
he is lawfully required to attend within the city or district of 
such attendance officer. He shall forthwith deliver the child so 
arrested either to the custody of a person in parental relation 
to the child, or of a teacher from whom such child is then a truant, 
or, in case of habitual and incorrigible truants, shall bring them 
before a police magistrate for commitment by him to a truant 
school as provided for in the next section. The attendance officer 
shall promptly report such arrest, and the disposition made by 
him of such child to the school authorities of the said city, village 
or district where such child is lawfully required to attend upon 
instruction or to such person as they may direct. A truant officer 
in the performance of his duties may enter, during business hours, 
any factory, mercantile or other establishment within the city or 
school district in which he is appointed and shall be entitled to 
examine employment certificates or registry of children employed 
therein on demand. Any person interfering with an attendance 
officer in the lawful discharge of his duties and any person owning 
or operating a factory, mercantile or other establishment who 
shall refuse on demand to exhibit to such attendance officer the 
registry of children employed or the employment certificate of 
such children shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. 

^§9 Truant schools. The school authorities of any city or 
school district may establish schools, or set apart separate rooms 
in public school buildings, for children between. 8 and i6 years 
of age, who are habitual truants from instruction upon which 
they are lawfully required to attend, or who are insubordinate or 
disorderly during their attendance upon such instruction, or irregu- 
lar in such attendance. Such school or room shall be known as 
a truant school ; but no person convicted of crimes or misdemeanors, 
other than truancy, shall be committed thereto. Such authorities 
may provide for the confinement, maintenance and instruction 
of such children in such schools; and they, or the superintend- 
ent of schools in any city or school district, may, after reasonable 
notice to such child and the persons in parental relation to 
such child, and an opportunity for them to be heard, and with 
the consent in writing of the persons in parental relation to such 



1 As amended by section 4, chapter 6o6, laws of 1896, and section i, chapter 311, laws of 
1905. 

^ As amended by section 5, chapter 606, laws of 1896, section 8, chapter 459, laws of 1903, 
and section 3, chapter 280, laws of 1905. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 125 

child, order such child to attend such school, or to be confined and 
maintained therein, under such rules and regulations as such 
authorities may prescribe, for a period not exceeding two years; 
but in no case shall a child be so confined after he is i6 years of 
age. Such authorities may order such a child to be confined and 
maintained during such period in any private school, orphans 
home or similar institution controlled by persons of the same 
religious faith as the persons in parental relation to such child, 
and which is willing and able to receive, confine and maintain such 
child, upon such terms as to compensation as may be agreed upon 
between such authorities and such private school, orphans home 
or similar institution. If the persons in parental relation to such 
child shall not consent to either such order, such conduct of the 
child shall be deemed disorderly conduct, and the child may be 
proceeded against as a disorderly person, and upon conviction 
thereof, if the child was lawfully required to attend a public school, 
the child shall be sentenced to be confined and maintained in such 
truant school for a period not exceeding two years ; or if such child 
was lawfully required to attend upon instruction otherwise than at 
a public school, the child may be sentenced to be confined and 
maintained for a period not exceeding two years in such private 
school, orphans home or other similar institution, if there be one, 
controlled by persons of the same religious faith as the persons 
in parental relation to such child, which is willing and able to 
receive, confine and maintain such child for a reasonable compensa- 
tion. Such confinement shall be conducted with a view to the 
improvement and to the restoration, as soon as practicable, of 
such child to the institution elsewhere, upon which he may be 
lawfully required to attend. The authorities committing any such 
child, and in cities and villages the superintendent of schools 
therein, shall have authority, in their discretion, to parole at any 
time any truant so committed by them. Every child suspended 
from attendance upon instruction by the authorities in charge of 
furnishing such instruction, for more than one week, shall be re- 
quired to attend such truant school during the period of such 
suspension. The school authorities of any city or school district, 
not having a truant school,, may contract with any other city or 
district having a truant school, for the confinement, maintenance 
and instruction therein of children whom such school authorities 
might require to attend a truant school, if there were one in their 
own city or district. Industrial training shall be furnished in 
every such truant school. The expense attending the commit- 



126 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

TITLE 1 6 

ment and cost of maintenance of any truant residing in any city, 
village or district, employing a superintendent of schools shall 
be a charge against such city, village or district, and in all other 
cases shall be a county charge. 
Withholding i§io Witholding the state moneys by Commissioner of Edu- 
cation. The Commissioner of Education may withhold one half 
of all public school moneys from any city or district, which, in his 
judgment, wilfully omits and refuses to enforce the provisions of 
this act, after due notice, so often and so long as such wilful omis- 
sion and refusal shall, in his judgment continue. If the provisions 
of this act are complied with at any time within one year from 
the date on which said moneys were withheld, the moneys so with- 
held shall be paid over by said Commissioner of Education to such 
district or city, otherwise forfeited to the state. The said Com- 
missioner of Education is hereby authorized and empowered to 
employ such assistants as he may deem necessary to properly carry 
this act into effect. He may remove such assistants from time to 
time and appoint their successors. He shall fix their salaries and 
under his direction such assistants shall investigate the extent to 
which this act is complied with in the cities and school districts 
of the state, and make such reports, and perform such other duties 
as the said Commissioner shall determine. Such assistants shall 
be paid, in addition to their salaries, their necessary traveling and 
other expenses incurred in the discharge of their official duties, to 
be audited by the Commissioner of Education. 

^§11 Chapter 421 of the laws of 1874 is hereby repealed. 

§12 This act shall take effect Jan. i, 1895. 

§13 This chapter shall be known as title 16 of the "Consolidated 
school law." 

[Chapter 988, laws of 1895, signed June 11, 1895, chapter 606, 
laws of 1896, signed May 13, 1896, chapter 459, laws of 1903, signed 
May 7, 1903, chapter 280, laws of 1905, signed Ap. 22, 1905, and 
chapter 311, laws of 1905, signed Ap. 22, 1905, each took effect 
immediately.] 

Schedule of laws repealed 

Laws of Chapter Section, 

1850 261 All 

1856 71. .... .• All 

.1856 179 All 

'As amended by section I, chaptsr 988, laws of 1895, and section 4, chapter 280, laws of 
1905. 

^As amended by chapter 606, laws of 1896. 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW 12/ 

Schedule of laws repealed (continued) 

Laws of Chapter Section 

•■•■ = . -555 All 



I 

1865 585 Section 9 

1865 647 All 

1866 _ 78 All 

1866 800 All 

1807.. 84 All 

1867.. 406 All 

1867 819 All 

1871 329 All 

1871.... 359 All 

1871.. 746 All 

1874.. 421 All 

1874 514 All 

1875 32.2 All 

1875 ••• 567= All 

1877 161 All 

1877 219 All 

i877---- 413 • All 

1878 173. .■ All 

1878 174 All 

1878 248 All 

1879 134 All 

1879 264 All 

.1879. 396 All 

1879 405 All 

1880 9 All 

1880 27 All 

1880 210 All 

1880 527 All 

1881 /92 All 

1881 528 All 

1881.. 632. All 

1882 115 All 

1882 381 All 

1883 75 All 

1883 172. . All 

1883 250. . All 

1883 294 All 

1883... .. . 414 All 



128 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

Schedule of laws repealed (continued) 

Laws of Chapter Section 

30 All 



1004 49. 



All 

1884 89 All 

All 

All 

All 



1654 179 

1884 248 



i»»4 413 

1885 340 All, except § 12 

1886 199 All 

1886 292 All 

1886 591 All 

1886 595 All 

1886 615 All 

1886 655 All 

1887 291. . All 

1887 333 All 

1887 334 



All 

1887 335 AH 

1887 538 All 

1887 540 All 



1887 592 



All 



1887 672 All 

1888 27 All 

1888 196 All 

1888 '. ' 209 All 

All 



1888 33I--- 

1888 334 , All 

1888 533 All 

1889 90 All 

1889 245 All 

1889 328 All 

1889 333 All 

1890 73 All 

1890 74. All 

1890 170 All 

1890 175 All 

1890 431 All 

1890 524 All 

1890 526 All 

1890 534 All 



CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL LAW I29 

Schedule of laws repealed (concluded) 

Laws of Chapter Section 

1890 548 All 

1892 573 All, except § 9, 

10, II and 12 

1893 484 All 

1893 •. 485 All 

1893 500 All 

1893 636 All 

1894 127 All 

1894 229 All 



THE RULES OF PRACTICE 



RELATING TO 



APPEALS TO THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION 



APPEALS— RULES OF PRACTICE 

Pursuant to the authority conferred by the laws of 1894, chapter 
556, title 14, section 2, the Commissioner of Education has estab- 
lished the following amended rules to regulate the practice in ap- 
peals : 

1 An appeal must be in writing, addressed "To the Commissioner 
of Education," stating the grounds upon which it is taken, and 
signed by the appellant or appellants. The appeal must be veri- 
fied by the oath of the appellant or appellants. When the appeal 
is made by the trustees of a district, it must be signed by all the 
trustees, or a reason must be given for the omission of any, veri- 
fied by the oath of the appellant or of some person acquainted with 
such reason. 

2 A copy of the appeal, and of all the statements, maps and 
papers intended to be presented in support of it, with the affidavit 
in verification of the same, must be served on the officer or officers 
whose act or decision is complained of, or some of them; or if it be 
from the decision or proceeding of a district meeting, upon the dis- 
trict clerk or one of the trustees, whose duty it is to cause informa- 
tion of such appeal to be given to the inhabitants who voted for 
the decision. 

3 Such service must be made by delivering a copy of the appeal 
to the party to be served personally, or, in case he can not be 
foimd in the commissioner district in which he resides, after due 
diligence, by delivering and leaving the same at his residence, with 
some person of suitable age and discretion, between 6 o'clock in 
the morning and 9 o'clock in the evening. 

4 Immediately after the service of such copy the original, to- 
gether with an affidavit proving the service of a copy thereof and 
stating the time and manner of the service and the name and 
official character of the person upon whom such service was made, 
must be transmitted to the Education Department at Albany.. 

5 Such original appeal and all papers, etc., annexed thereto, 
with proof of service of copies, as required by rules 3 and 4, must 
be sent to the Education Department within 30 days after the 
making of the decision or the performance of the act complained 
of or within that time after the knowledge of the cause of com- 
plaint came to the appellant, or some satisfactory excuse must be 
rendered in the appeal for the delay. If an answer is received to 

133 



134 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

an appeal which has not been transmitted to the Department, 
such appeal will be dismissed. 

6 The party upon whom an appeal shall be served must, within 
lo days from the time of such service, unless further time be given 
by the Commissioner of Education, on application, answer the 
same, either by concurring in a statement of facts with the appel- 
lant or by a separate answer, and of all affidavits, papers, maps, 
etc., in support thereof. Such statement and answer must be 
signed by all the trustees or other officers whose act, omission or 
decision is appealed from, or a good reason, on oath, must be given 
for the omission of the signature of any of them. Such answer 
must be verified by oath and a copy thereof and of all the state- 
ments, maps, papers, etc., intended to be presented in support 
thereof, served on the appellants or some one of them, in like 
manner as is provided in rule 3 for the service of a copy of an 
appeal. 

7 Immediately after the service of a copy of such answer and the 
statements, papers, etc., presented in support thereof, the original 
answer and papers, etc., together with an affidavit of the service 
of such copy and stating the time and manner of the service and 
the name and official character of the person upon whom such 
service was made, as hereinbefore provided for the service of a 
copy of an appeal, must be transmitted to the Education Depart- 
ment at Albany. 

8 No reply, replication or rejoinder shall be allowed, except by 
permission of the Commissioner of Education; in which case, such 
reply, replication and rejoinder must be duly verified by oath, and 
copies thereof served on the opposite party. Immediately after 
the service of such copy, the original, together with an affidavit of 
such service, and stating the time and manner of the service, and 
the name and official character of the person upon whom such 
service was made, must be transmitted to the Education Depart- 
ment at Albany. 

9 So far as the parties concur in a statement, no oath will be 
required to it. But all facts, maps, or papers, not agreed upon by 
them and evidenced by their signature on both sides, must be veri- 
fied by oath. 

10 When any proceeding of a district meeting is appealed from, 
and when the inhabitants of a district generally are interested in 
the matter of the appeal, and in all cases where an inhabitant 
might be an appellant had the decision or proceeding been the 
opposite of that which was made or had, any one or more of such 
inhabitants may answer the appeal, with or without the trustees. 



RULES RELATING TO APPEALS 1 35 

11 Where the appeal has relation to the alteration or formation 
of a school district, it must be accompanied by a map, exhibiting 
the site of the schoolhouse, the roads, the old and new lines of dis- 
tricts, the different lots, the particular location and distance from 
the schoolhouses of the persons aggrieved, and their relative dis- 
tance, if there are two or more schoolhouses in question. Also, 
a list of all the taxable inhabitants in the district or territory to 
be affected by the question, showing in separate columns the valu- 
ation of their property taken from the last assessment roll, and 
the number of children between 5 and 21 belonging to each person, 
distinguishing the districts to which they respectively belong. 

12 An appeal, of itself, does not stay proceedings. If the party 
desires such stay he should apply for it by petition, stating the 
facts upon which such stay should be made, duly verified. The 
Commissioner of Education will grant a stay, or not, as in his 
judgment it may be proper, or may subserve the interests of either 
party or the public, and may direct a copy of the petition to be 
served on the opposite party, and a hearing on both sides before 
deciding upon the application. 

13 The affidavit of verification, required by these rules to an 
appeal, answer, reply, replication and rejoinder, must be to the 
effect, that the same is true to the knowledge of the affiant, except 
as to the matters therein stated to be alleged on information and 
belief, and that as to those matters he believes it to be true. 

14 All oaths required by these rules may be taken before any 
person authorized to take affidavits. 

15 All appeals and other papers therein must be fairly and 
legibly written; and if not so written, may, in the discretion of the 
Commissioner of Education, be returned to the parties. 

16 When any party, appellant or respondent, is not represented 
on the appeal by an attorney, the name of such party, with the 
names of the district, town and county and his postoffice address 
must be indorsed upon each paper of the party so represented, 
filed in the Department on such appeal ; and, when represented by 
an attorney, the name of such attorney, with the name of the dis- 
trict, town and county affected and his postoffice address, must 
be so indorsed upon each paper of the party so represented, filed 
in the Department on such appeal. 

17 Submission of appeals may be made upon the papers filed 
therein, with or without oral argument, or the filing of briefs, as 
the Commissioner ot Education, upon application ,_ may determine. 



136 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

18 The decision of the Commissioner of Education in every case 
will contain the order, or directions, necessary and proper for 
giving effect to his decisions. 

19 A decision upon an appeal will be forwarded by the Com- 
missioner of Education to the clerk of the school district in which 
the appeal arose, or to the town clerk of the town, when the appeal 
relates to the alteration of a district in which the order appealed 
from is filed, whose duty it will be to file the same in his office as 
a public record. 

20 The Commissioner of Education will, in his discretion, in the 
determination of an appeal, take into consideration any official 
records or reports on file in the Education Department and relat- 
ing to the issues involved in such appeal. 

PRACTICE ON APPLICATION FOR REMOVAL OF SCHOOL OFFICERS 

Under consolidated school law of 1894, title i, § 13 

For wilful violation or neglect of duty 

The proceedings are generally termed appeals asking for the 
removal of the officer against whom the charges are made. 

The applicant should prepare a petition addressed, "To the 
Commissioner of Education," in which, after distinctly stating the 
charge should proceed with a specification of the facts by which it 
is established, which must be set forth with such certainty as to 
time, place, etc., as to furnish the officer with precise information 
as to what he is expected to meet, and enable him to look for 
repelling testimony. The charges must not only be distinctly 
alleged, but they must be specifically proved. After being veri- 
fied, a copy of the petition, and of all affidavits in support thereof, 
including the affidavits of verification thereto, must be served upon 
the officer whose removal is sought, together with a notice of the 
application, which may be substaitially in the following words: 

Sir: Take notice that the petition and affidavits, with copies of 
which you are herewith served, will be presented to the Commis- 
sioner of Education at Albany, and application thereon made for 
your removal from the office of . . . of district no. ... 
town of ... in ... county ; and that you are required to 
transmit your answer to such application, duly verified, to the 
Education Department within lo days after the service hereof, or 
the charges contained in such affidavits will be deemed to be 
admitted by you. 

A B 

[Postofjice address] 



RULES RELATING TO APPEALS 137 

A copy of this notice, together with an affidavit proving the 
service thereof, and of the petition and affidavits therein referred 
to, and the date and manner of such service, must be transmitted, 
with the original petition and affidavits, to the Education Depart- 
ment. The officer can not be prejudiced by any statement which 
he has not been called upon to answer. The officer must transmit 
his sworn answer, together with the affidavits of other persons, if 
he deems them necessary, with proof of service of copies thereof 
upon the petitioner, to the Education Department within lo days. 
If, for any reason, as the absence of material witnesses, he is unable 
to complete his defense in that time, he should, before its expira- 
tion, transmit his own answer, duly verified, with a statement, 
xmder oath, of the facts which render it necessary that the time to 
procure further evidence should be extended, and stating the 
earliest day at which he expects to be able to obtain such evi- 
dence. If a probable defense appears from his answer, and the 
application for further time is reasonable, an order will be made 
granting it. 

If no answer is made by the officer to the petition, etc., the 
allegations contained in said petition, etc., will be considered 
admitted and if a case is thus established against the officer, the 
Commissioner of Education will at once remove him. If an answer 
is interposed, the question will be decided by the Commissioner of 
Education after an examination of the facts as presented by the 
papers upon both sides. 

For wilfully disobeying any decision, order or regulation of the 
Commissioner of Education 

The^practice and procedure in cases of the wilful disobedience 
of any order, decision, or regulation of the Commissioner of Edu- 
cation should be like that above stated of wilful violation or neglect 
of duty, excepting that upon the filing of the petition, etc., with 
proof of service of a copy thereof upon the officer and in the Edu- 
cation Department, or upon his own motion, the Commissioner of 
Education will issue an order directing the officer to show cause 
before him on or before a certain day fixed in the order, why he 
should not be removed from office. If no answer is made to said 
order, the allegations contained in the moving papers will be 
deemed to be admitted and if a case is thus established against 
the officer, the Commissioner of Education will at once remove 
him. If an answer is interposed, the question will be decided by 



138 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

the Commissioner of Education after an examination of the facts 
as presented by both sides. 

NOTE 

In the papers filed in the Department upon an appeal, the Com- 
missioner wants facts, not arguments or inferences, much less in- 
jurious imputations on the motives of parties. The facts should 
be distinctly averred, so that an indictment for perjury would lie 
if they are wilfully misstated. Therefore, they should not be 
stated by way of recital imder a "whereas" or in any similar 
indirect way. Every material fact should be stated with all prac- 
ticable particularity as to time, quantities, numbers etc. Where 
a statement is ambiguous or doubtful in meaning that construc- 
tion is adopted which is most unfavorable to the party making it. 

The appellant must establish his appeal by a preponderance of 
proof, and should make out his own case, so that if no answer is 
put in, the Commissioner of Education will have, in the appeal 
itself, all the facts to inform him what order ought to be made. 
The record itself must contain enough to support the decision. 

In the bringing and answering of appeals it is recommended 
that the matters be written upon paper ruled as paper is ruled for 
legal pleadings. Such paper is kept by all stationers and book- 
sellers, and is known as law paper or legal cap. The several sheets 
should be written, as lawyers write their papers, on both sides, so 
that the bottom of the first page is the top of the second, and the 
sheets are fastened or attached at the ends and not at the sides. 
Manuscript arranged in this fashion is more easily handled, folded 
and filed. The paper should be smoothly folded and indorsed with 
the title of the case, briefly stating the substance of the appeal 
or answer, with the names of the parties or attorneys and their 
postoffice addresses and the district, town and county affected. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS RELATING TO 
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

The following provisions of the general laws of the state and of 
special acts, relating to schools and the duties of school officers, do not prop- 
erly form a part of the consolidated school law, but a knowledge of them is im- 
portant and necessary on the part of school district officers. 

Vaccination of school children 

CHAPTER 66i 

An act in relation to the public health, constituting chapter 25 of the general 

laws 

Passed May 9, 1893 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly,' do enact as follows: 

CHAPTER XXV OF THE GENERAL LAWS 
The public health law 

§200 No child or person not vaccinated shall be admitted or re- 
ceived into any of the public schools of the state, and the trustees 
or other officers having the charge, management or control of such 
schools shall cause this provision of law to be enforced. They may 
adopt a resolution excluding such children and persons not vac- 
cinated from such'^school tmtil vaccinated, and when any such reso- 
lution has been adopted, they shall give at least 10 days' notice 
thereof, by posting copies of the same in at least two public and 
conspicuous places within the limits of the school government, and 
shall announce therein that due provision has been made, specify- 
ing it, for the vaccination of any child or person of suitable age 
desiring to attend the school, and whose parents or guardians are 
unable to procure vaccination for them, or who are, by reason of 
poverty, exempted from taxation in such district. 

§201 Such trustees or board may appoint a competent physician 
and fix his compensation, who shall ascertain the number of chil- 
dren or persons in a school district, or in a subdivision of a city 
school government, of suitable age to attend the common schools, 
who have not been vaccinated and furnish such trustees or board 
a list of their names. Every such physician shall provide himself 
with good and reliable vaccine virus with which to vaccinate such 
children or persons* such trustees or board shall direct, and give 
certificates of vaccination when required, which shall be evidence 



'So in the] original. 

139 



140 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

that the child or person to whom given has been vaccinated. The 
expenses incurred in carrying into effect the provisions of this and 
the preceding section, shall be deemed a part of the expense of 
maintaining such school, and shall be levied and collected in the 
same manner as other school expenses. The trustees of the sev- 
eral school districts of the state shall include in their annual report 
the number of vaccinated and imvaccinated children of school age 
in their respective districts. 



Assessment and taxation— Land in forest preserve 
CHAPTER 395 

An act to amend the game law and to repeal chapter 332 of the laws of 1893, 
entitled "An act in relation to the forest preserve and Adirondack park, 
constituting articles 6 and 7 of chapter 43 of the general laws " 

Passed April 25, 1895 

§270 The forest preserve shall include the lands owned or here- 
after acquired by the state within the counties of Clinton, except 
the towns of Altona and Dannemora, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, 
Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Oneida, Saratoga, St Law- 
rence, Warren, Washington, Greene, Ulster and Sullivan, except 
J Lands within the limits of any village or city and 
2 Lands, not wild lands, acquired by the state on foreclosure of 
mortgages made to the commissioners for loaning certain moneys 
of the United States, usually called the United States deposit fund. 



CHAPTER 908 
An act in relation to taxation, constituting chapter 24 of the general laws 

Took effect June 15, 1896 

ARTICLE I 

§4 Exemption from taxation. The following property shall be 
exempt from taxation : 

1 Property of the United States. 

2 Property of this state other than its wild or forest lands in the 
forest preserve. 

ARTICLE 2 

§22 Assessment of state lands in forest preserve. All wild or 
forest lands within the forest preserve shall be assessed and taxed 
at a like valuation and rate as similar lands of individuals within 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I4I 

the counties where situated. On or before Aug. i in every year 
the assessors of the town, within which the lands so belonging to 
the state are situated shall file in the office of the Comptroller and 
of the Board of Fisheries, Game and Forest, a copy of the assess- 
ment roll of the town, which, in addition to the other matter now 
required by law, shall state and specify which and how much, if 
any, of the lands assessed are forest lands, and which and how 
much, if any, are lands belonging to the state; such statements 
and specifications to be verified by the oaths of a majority of the 
assessors. The Comptroller shall thereupon and before the ist 
day of September following, and after hearing the assessors and 
Board of Fisheries, Game and Forest, if they or any of them so 
desire, correct or reduce any assessment of state lands which may 
be in his judgment an uaifair proportion to the remaining assess- 
ment of land within the town, and shall in other respects approve 
the assessment and communicate such approval to the assessors. 
No such assessment of state lands shall be valid for any purpose 
imtil the amount of assessment is approved by the Comptroller, 
and such approval attached to and deposited with the assessment 
roll of the town, and therewith delivered by the assessors of the 
town to the supervisor thereof or other officer authorized to re- 
ceive the same from the assessors. No tax for the erection of a 
schoolhouse or opening of a road shall be imposed on the state 
lands unless such erection or opening shall have been first ap- 
proved in writing by the Board of Fisheries, Game and Forest. 

ARTICLE 4 

§80 Payment of taxes on state lands in forest preserve. The 

Treasurer of the state, upon the certificate of the Comptroller as 
to the correct amount of such tax, shall pay the tax levied upon 
state lands in the forest preserve by crediting to the treasurer of 
the coimty in which such lands may be situated, such taxes, upon 
the amount payable by such county treasurer to the state for state 
tax. No fees shall be allowed by the Comptroller to the coimty 
treasurer for such portion of the state tax as is so paid. 



142 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

Banks, banking associations and individual bankers 
CHAPTER 908 

An act in relation to taxation, constituting chapter 24 of the general laws 

Took effect June 15, 1896 

ARTICLE I 

Place of taxation 

§13 Stockholders of bank taxable on shares. The stockholders 
of every bank or banking association organized tinder the authority 
of this state, or of the United States, shall be assessed and taxed 
on the value -of their shares of stock therein ; said shares shall be 
included in the valuation of the personal property of such stock- 
holders in the assessment of taxes in the tax district where such 
bank or banking association is located, and not elsewhere, whether 
the said stockholders reside in said tax district or not. 

§14 Place of taxation of individual bank capital. Every indi- 
vidual banker shall be taxable upon the amount of capital invested 
in his banking business in the tax district where the place of such 
business is located and shall, for that purpose, be deemed a resi- 
dent of such tax district. 

ARTICLE 2 

Mode of assessment 

§23 Banks to make report. The chief fiscal officer of every bank 
or banking association organized under the authority of this state 
or of the United States, shall, on or before the ist day of July, fur- 
nish the assessors of the tax district in which its principal office is 
located, and also the State Board of Tax Commissioners, a state- 
ment, under oath, of the condition of such bank or banking asso- 
ciation, on the ist day of Jime next preceding, stating the amount 
of its authorized capital stock, the number of shares and the par 
value of the shares thereof, the amount of stock paid in, the date 
and rate per centum of each dividend declared by it during the 
year, the capital employed by it during the year, the amotint of its 
surplus, if any, the amoimt, value and location of its real estate, a 
complete list of the names and residences of its stockholders, and 
the number of shares held by each, and such other data, informa- 
tion or matters as may be prescribed by the State Board of Tax 
Commissioners, who shall furnish blanks upon which such reports 
shall be made, and prescribe the form of verification thereto, and 
such commissioners may,' at any time, require a further and fuller 
report. In case of neglect or refusal on the part of any bank, cor- 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I43 

poration or association to report, as herein prescribed, or to make 
other or further reports as may be required by the commissioners 
of taxes, such bank, corporation or association shall forfeit the sum 
of $100 for each failure, and the additional sum of $io for each day 
such failure continues, and an action therefor shall be prosecuted 
by the State Board of Tax Commissioners. There shall, in addi- 
tion to such report, be kept in the office of every such bank or bank- 
ing association a full and correct list of the names and residences 
of all the stockholders therein, and of the number of shares held 
by each, and such list shall be subject to the inspection of the asses- 
sors and the Board of Commissioners of Taxes at all times. The 
list of stockholders furnished by such bank, corporation or asso- 
ciation shall be deemed to contain the names of the owners of such 
shares as are set opposite them respectively, for the purposes of 
assessment and taxation. 

'§24 Bank shares, how assessed. In assessing the shares of 
stock of banks or banking associations organized tmder the author- 
ity of this state or the United States, the assessment and taxation 
shall not be at a greater rate than is made or assessed upon other 
moneyed capital in the hands of individual citizens of this state. 
The value of each share of stock of each bank and banking associa- 
tion, except such as are in liquidation, shall be ascertained and 
fixed by adding together the amount of the capital stock, surplus 
and undivided profits of such bank or banking association and by 
dividing the result by the number of outstanding shares of such 
bank or banking association. The value of each share of stock in 
each bank or banking association in liquidation shall be ascer- 
tained and fixed by dividing the actual assets of such bank or 
banking association by the number of outstanding shares of such 
bank or banking association. The rate of tax upon the shares of 
stock of banks and banking associations shall be one per centum 
upon the value thereof, as ascertained and fixed in the manner 
hereinbefore provided, and the owners of the stock of banks and 
banking associations shall be entitled to no deduction from the 
taxable value of their shares because of the personal indebted- 
ness of such owners, or for any other reason whatsoever. Com- 
plaints in relation to the assessments of the shares of stock of 
banks and banking associations made under the provisions of this 
act shall be heard and determined as provided in article 2, sec- 
tion 36 of the tax law. The said tax shall be in lieu of all other 
taxes whatsoever for state, coimty or local purposes upon the said 

lAs amended by chapter 267, laws of 1903. 



144 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

shares of stock, and mortgages, judgments and other choses in 
action and personal property held or owned by banks or banking 
associations the value of which enters into the value of said shares 
of stock, shall also be exempt from all other state, county or local 
taxation. The tax herein imposed shall be levied in the following 
manner: the board of supervisors of the several counties shall, on 
or before the 15th day of December in each year, ascertain from 
an inspection of the assessment rolls in their respective coimties, 
the number of shares of stock of banks and banking associations 
in each town, city, village, school and other tax district, in their 
several counties, respectively, in which such shares of stock are 
taxable, the names of the banks issuing the same, respectively, 
and the assessed value of such shares, as ascertained in the manner 
provided in this act and entered upon the said assessment rolls, 
and shall forthwith mail to the president or cashier of each of said 
banks or banking associations a statement setting forth the amount 
of its capital stock, surplus and undivided profits, the number of 
outstanding shares thereof, the value of each share of stock taxable 
in said county, as ascertained in the manner herein provided, and 
the aggregate amount of tax to be collected and paid by such bank 
and banking association, imder the provisions of this act. A cer- 
tified copy of each of said statements shall be sent to the county 
treasurer. It shall be the duty of every bank or banking associa- 
tion to collect the tax due upon its share of stock from the several 
owners of such shares and to pay the same to the treasurer of the 
county wherein said bank or banking association is located, and in 
the city of New York to the receiver of taxes thereof on or before 
the 31st day of December in said year; and any bank or banking 
association failing to pay the said tax as herein provided shall be 
liable by way of penalty for the gross amount of the taxes due from 
all owners of the shares of stock, and for an additional amount of 
$100 for every day of delay in the payment of said tax. Every 
bank or banking association so paying the taxes due upon the 
shares of its stock shall have a lien on the shares of stock, and on 
all property of the several share owners in its hands, or which may 
at any time come into its hands, for reimbursement of the taxes 
so paid on account of the several shareholders, with legal interest; 
and such lien may be enforced in any appropriate manner. The 
tax hereby imposed shall be distributed in the following manner: 
the board of supervisors of the several counties shall ascertain the 
tax rate of each of the several town, city, village, school, and other 
tax districts in their counties respectively, in which the shares of 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS l45 

stock of banks and banking associations shall be taxable, which 
tax rates shall include the proportion of state and county taxes 
levied in such districts, respectively, for the year for which the tax 
is imposed, and the proportion of the tax on bank stock to which 
each of said districts shall be respectively entitled shall be ascer- 
tained by taking such proportion of the tax upon the shares of 
stock of banks and banking associations, taxable in such districts, 
respectively, under the provisions of this act as the tax rate of such 
district shall bear to the aggregate tax rates of all the tax districts 
in which said shares of stock shall be taxable. The clerk of the 
several cities, villages and school districts to which any portion of 
the tax on shares of stock of banks and banking associations is to 
be distributed under this act shall, in writing and under oath 
annually, report to the board of supervisors of their respective 
counties, during the first week of the annual session of such board, 
the tax rate of such city, village, and school district for the year 
prior to the meeting of each such board. The said board of super- 
visors shall issue their warrant or order to the county treasurer on 
or before the 15th day of December in each year, setting forth the 
number of shares of bank stock taxable in each town, city, village, 
school and other tax district in said county, in which said shares 
of stock shall be taxable, the tax rate of each of said tax districts 
for said year, the proportion of the tax imposed by this act to 
which each of said tax districts is entitled, under the provisions 
hereof, and commanding him to collect same, and to pay to the 
proper officer in each of such districts the proportion of such tax 
to which it is entitled under the provisions of this act. The said 
county treasurer shall have the same powers to enforce the col- 
lection and payment of said tax as are possessed by the officers 
now charged by law with the collection of taxes and the said 
county treasurer shall be entitled to a commission of i per centum 
for collecting and paying out said moneys, which commission shall 
be deducted from the gross amount of said tax before the same is 
distributed. In issuing their warrants to the collectors of taxes, 
the board of supervisors shall omit therefrom assessments of and 
taxes upon the shares of stock of banks and banking associations. 
All assessments of the shares of stock of banks and banking associa- 
tions made on or after Jan. i, 1901, and prior to the passage of this 
act, shall be null and void, and new assessments thereof shall be 
made agreeably to the provisions of this act. Provided, that in 
the city of New York, the statement of the bank assessment and 
tax herein provided for shall be made by the board of tax com- 



146 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

missioners of said city, on or before the 15th day of December in 
each year, and by them forthwith mailed to the respective banks 
and banking associations located in said city, and a certified copy 
thereof sent to the receiver of taxes of said city. The tax shall be 
paid by the respective banks in said city, to the said receiver of 
taxes on or before the 31st day of December in said year, and said 
tax shall be collected by the said receiver of taxes and shall be by 
him'paid into the treasury of said city to the credit of the g^r^^ral 
fund thereof. This act is not to be construed as an exemption of 
the real^estate of banks or banking associations from taxation. 

§25 Individual banker, how assessed. Every individual banker 
doing business under the laws of this state, must report before the 
15th day of June under oath to the assessors of the tax district 
in which any of the capital invested in such banking business is tax- 
able, the amount of captial invested in such banking business in 
such tax district on the ist day of June preceding. Such capital 
shall be assessed as personal property to the banker in whose name 
such business is carried on. 

§26 Notice of assessment to bank or banking association. The 
assessors of every tax district shall within 10 days after they have 
completed the assessment of the stock of a bank or banking associa- 
tion, give written notice to such bank or banking association of such 
assessment of the shares of its respective shareholders, and no per- 
sonal or other notice to such shareholders of such assessment is 
required. 

ARTICLE 4 
Collection of taxes 

§72 Collection of taxes assessed against stocks in banks and 
banking associations. Every bank or banking association shall 
retain any dividend until the delivery to the collector of the tax 
roll and warrant of the current year, and within 10 days after such 
delivery, shall pay to such collector so much of such dividend as 
may be necessary to pay any unpaid taxes assessed on the stock 
upon which such dividend is declared. In case the owner of such 
stock resides in a place other than where the bank or banking asso- 
ciation is located, the same power may be exercised in collecting 
the tax so assessed as is given in case a person has removed from a 
tax district in which the assessment was made. The tax so assessed 
shall be and remain a lien on the shares of stock against which it is 
assessed till the payment of such tax, and if the stock is trans- 
ferred it shall be subject to such lien. The collector or county 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I47 

treasurer may foreclose such lien in any court of record, and collect 
from the avails of the sale of the stock the tax assessed against the 
same. In addition thereto, the same remedy may be had for the 
collection of the tax on such shares as is now provided by law for 
enforcing payment of personal tax against residents. 



Apportioning valuation of railroads, telegraph, telephone and pipe 
line companies between school districts 

CHAPTER 908 
An act in relation to taxation, constituting chapter 24 of the general laws 

Took effect June 15, 1896 
ARTICLE 2 
Mode of assessment 
§39 Assessors to apportion valuation of railroad, telegraph, 
telephone, or pipe line companies between school districts. The 
assessors of each town in which a railroad, telegraph, telephone or 
pipe line company is assessed upon property lying in more than one 
school district therein, shall, within 15 days after the final comple- 
tion of the roll, apportion the assessed valuation of the property 
of each of such corporations among such school districts. Such 
apportionment shall be signed by the assessors or a majority of 
them, and be filed with the town clerk within five days thereafter, 
and thereupon the valuation so fixed shall become the valuation 
of such property in such school district for the purpose of taxation. 
In case of failure of the assessors to act, the supervisor of the town 
shall make such apportionment on request of either the trustees 
of any school district or of the corporation assessed. The town 
clerk shall furnish the trustees a certified statement of the valua- 
tions apportioned to their respective districts. In case of any 
alteration in any school district affecting the valuation of such 
property, the officer making the same shall fix and determine 
the valuations in the districts affected for the current year. 



Railroad companies — collection of taxes 

CHAPTER 675 

An act to facilitate the payment of school taxes by railroad companies 

Passed July 25, 1881 
i§i It shall be the duty of the school collector in each school 
district in this state, except in the counties of New York, Kings 

t^'As amended by chapter 533, laws of 1885. 



148 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

and Cattaraugus, within five days after the receipt by such collector 
of any and every tax or assessment roll of his district, to prepare 
and deliver to the county treasurer of the county in which such 
district, or the greater part thereof, is situated, a statement show- 
ing the name of each railroad company appearing in said roll, the 
assessment against each of said companies for real and personal 
property respectively, and the tax against each of said companies. 
It shall thereupon be the duty of such county treasurer, immediately 
afterthe receipt by him of such statement from such school collector, 
to notify the ticket agent of any such railroad company assessed 
for taxes at the station nearest to the office of such county treasurer, 
personally or by mail, of the fact that such statement has been filed 
with him by such collector, at the same time specifying the amount 
of tax to be paid by such railroad company. 

§2 Any railroad company heretofore organized, or which may 
hereafter be organized, under the laws of this state, may within 30 
days after the receipt of such statement by such county treasurer, 
pay the amount of tax so levied or assessed against it in such dis- 
trict and in such statement mentioned and contained with i per 
centum fees thereon, to such county treasurer, who is hereby 
authorized and directed to receive such amount and to give proper 
receipt therefor. 

§3 In case any railroad company shall fail to pay such tax with- 
in said 30 days, it shall be the duty of such county treasurer to 
notify the collector of the school district in which such delinquent 
railroad company is assessed, of its failure to pay said tax, and 
upon receipt of such notice it shall be the duty of such collector to 
collect such unpaid tax in the manner now provided by law, to- 
gether with 5 per centum fees thereon ; but no school collector shall 
collect* by distress and sale any tax levied or assessed in this district 
upon the property of any railroad company imtil the receipt by 
him of such notice from the county treasurer. 

§4 The several amounto of tax received by any county treasurer 
in this state, under the provisions of this act, of and from railroad 
companies, shall be by such county treasurer placed to the credit of 
the school district for or on account of which the same was levied or 
assessed, and on demand paid over to the school collector thereof, 
and the i per centum fees received therewith shall be placed to the 
credit of, and on demand paid to, the school collector of such school 
district. 

§5 Nothing in this act contained shall be construed to hinder, 
prevent or prohibit any railroad company from paying its school 
tax to the school collector direct, as now][provided by law. 

§6 This act shall^take effect immediately. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I49 

Exemptions from taxation— Dwelling-house and land owned by 
religious corporation, when exempt, and real and personal prop- 
erty of a minister of the gospel or priest 

CHAPTER 908 

An act in relation to taxation, constituting chapter 24 of the general laws 

Took effect June 15, 1896 

ARTICLE I 

Taxable property and place of taxation 

§4 Exemptions . from taxation. The following property shall 
be exempt from taxation. 

9 All dwelling-houses and lots of religious corporations while 
actually used by the officiating clergymen thereof, but the total 
amount of such exemption to any one religious corporation shall 
not exceed $2000. Such exemption shall be in addition to that 
provided by subdivision 7 of this section. 

II The real property of a minister of the gospel or priest who is 
regularly engaged in performing his duties as such, or permanently 
disabled, by impaired health from the performance of such duties, 
or over 75 years of age, and the personal property of such minister 
or priest, but the total amount of such exemption on account of 
both real and personal property shall not exceed $1500. 



Real and personal property of corporations and associations organ- 
ized exclusively for moral, mental, religious purposes, etc., 
exempt from taxation 

CHAPTER 908 
An act in relation to taxation, constituting chapter 24 of the general laws 

ARTICLE I 

Taxable property and place of taxation 

»§4 Exemption from taxation. The following property shall be 
exempt from taxation : 

7 The real property of a corporation or association organized 
exclusively for the moral or mental improvement of men or women, 
orfor religious, bible, tract, charitable, benevolent, missionary, 
hospital, infirmary, educational, scientific, literary, library, patriotic, 

^As amended by chapter 371, laws of 1897. 



150 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

historical or cemetery purposes, or for the enforcement of laws 
relating to children or animals, or for two or more such purposes, 
and used exclusively for carrying out thereupon one or more of 
such purposes; and the personal property of any such corporation 
shall be exempt from taxation . But no such corporation or associa- 
tion shall be entitled to any such exemption if any officer, member 
or employee thereof shall receive or may be lawfully entitled to 
receive any pecuniary profit from the operations thereof except 
reasonable compensation for services in effecting one or more of 
such purposes, or as proper beneficiaries of its strictly charitable 
purposes ; or if the organization thereof, for any such avowed pur- 
poses be a guise or pretense for directly or indirectly making any 
other pecuniary profit for such corporation or association, or for 
any of its members or employees, or if it be not in good faith organ- 
ized or conducted exclusively for one or more of such purposes. 
The real property of any such corporation or association entitled 
to such exemption held by it exclusively for one or more of such 
purposes, and from which no rents, profits or income are derived, 
shall be so exempt, though not in actual use therefor by reason of 
the absence of suitable buildings or improvements thereon, if the 
construction of such buildings or improvements is in progress, or 
is in good faith contemplated by such corporation or association^ 
The real property of any such corporation not so used exclusively 
for carrying out thereupon one or more of such purposes, but 
leased or otherwise used for other purposes, shall not be exempt, 
but if a portion only of any lot or building of any such corporation 
or association is used exclusively for carrying out thereupon one 
or more such purposes of any such corporation or association, then 
such lot or building shall be so exempt only to the extent of the 
value of the portion so used, and the remaining or other portion to 
the extent of the value of such remaining or other portion shall be 
subject to taxation. Provided, however, that a lot or building 
owned, and actually used for hospital purposes, by a free public 
hospital, depending for maintenance and support upon voluntary 
charity shall not be taxed as to a portion thereof leased or other- 
wise used for the purposes of income, when such income is neces- 
sary for, and is actulaly applied to, the maintenance and support 
of such hospital. Property held by any officer of a religious 
denomination shall be entitled to the same exemptions, subject to 
the same conditions and exceptions, as property held by a religious 
corporation. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I5I 

Real property purchased with proceeds of pensions granted by the 
United States, for military or naval services, subject to taxa- 
tion for school purposes, etc. 

Chapter 347, laws of 1897, section i, amends subdivision 5 of 
section 4 of chapter 908, laws of 1896, entitled "An act in relation 
to taxation, constituting chapter 24 of the general laws, " as follows : 

§1 Subdivision 5 of section 4 of chapter 908 of the laws of 
1896, entitled "An act in relation to taxation, constituting chapter 
24 of the general laws," is hereby amended to read as follows: 

5 All property exempt by law from execution, other than an 
exempt homestead. But real property purchased with the pro- 
ceeds of a pension granted by the United States for military or 
naval services, and owned and occupied by the pensioner, or by 
his wife or widow, is subject to taxation as herein provided. Such 
property shall be assessed in the same manner as other real property 
in the tax districts. At the meeting of the assessors to hear the 
complaints concerning assessments, a verified application for the 
exemption of such real property from taxation may be presented 
to them by or on behalf of the owner thereof, which application 
must show the facts on which the exemption is claimed, including 
the amoimt of pension money used in or toward the purchase of 
such property. If the assessors are satisfied that the applicant is 
entitled to the exemption, and that the amount of pension money 
used in the purchase of such property equals or exceeds the assessed 
valuation thereof, they shall enter the word "exempt" upon the 
assessment roll opposite the description of such property. If the 
amotmt of such pension money used in the purchase of the property 
is less than the assessed valuation, they shall enter upon the assess- 
ment roll the words "exempt to the extent of ... dollars" 
(naming the amount) and thereupon such real property, to the 
extent of the exemption entered by the assessors, shall be exempt 
from state, cotmty and general municipal taxation, but shall be 
taxable for local school purposes, and for the construction and 
maintenance of streets and highways. If no application for exemp- 
tion be granted, the property shall be subject to taxation for all 
purposes. The entries above required shall be made and con- 
tinued in each assessment of the property so long as it is exempt 
from taxation for any purpose. The provision herein, relating to 
the assessment and exemption of property purchased with a pen- 
sion apply and shall be enforced in each municipal corporation 
authorized to levy taxes. 



152 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

Pay, bounty and pension money of soldiers and sailors and real 
property purchased therewith 

CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE 

^§1393 The pay and bounty of a noncommissioned officer, musi- 
cian or private in the military or naval service of the United States 
or the State of New York; a land warrant, pension or other reward, 
heretofore or hereafter granted by the United States, or by a state, 
for military or naval services; a sword, horse, medal, emblem or 
device of any kind presented as a testimonial for services rendered 
in the military or naval service of the United States or a state ; and 
the uniform, arms and equipments which were used by a person in 
that service,- are also exempt from levy and sale, by virtue of an 
execution, and from seizure for nonpayment of taxes, or in any 
other legal proceeding; except that real property purchased with 
the proceeds of a pension granted by the United States for military 
or naval services, and owned by the pensioner, or by his wife or 
widow, is subject to seizure and sale for the collection of taxes or 
assessments lawfully levied thereon. 

Note. The Court of Appeals of this state, in Yates County National Bank v. Carpenter, 119 
N.Y. 550, held where such money (pay and bounty, land warrant, pensions or other reward) can 
be traced directly to the purchase of property, necessary or convenient for the support of the 
pensioner and his family, such property is made exempt by the above section. 

A. By the revised statutes of this state, all property exempted by law from execution shall 
be exempt from taxation. 



CHAPTER 502, LAWS OF 1902 

An act to provide for a uniform tax in the several towns of the county of 
St Lawrence for the maintenance of common schools, and for the levy, 
collection, custody and disbursement thereof 

Became a law Ap. 10, 1902, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§■1 At any biennial town meeting, held after the passage of this 
act, in the several towns of the county of St Lawrence, there may 
be submitted to the electors thereof, upon the written request of 
not less than 25 taxpayers entitled to vote thereon, such request 
having been filed with the town clerk at least 30 days before such 
biennial town meeting, the question, "Shall a uniform system of 
taxation for the maintenance of the common schools be adopted 
in the town of " If a majority of the ballots 

^As amended by chapter 318, laws of 1807. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I53 

cast shall be in the affirmative, further proceedings under this act 
shall be taken as hereinafter provided. 

§2 On or before the day of the meeting of the town board for the 
audit of town accounts in each year, following the adoption of this 
act, by any town in the county of St Lawrence, the trustee or trus- 
tees of the several common school districts in such town shall file 
with the town clerk, a statement of the sum of money necessary 
to maintain the common school in said common school district in 
the following form; 

I (or we), the tmdersigned trustee (or trustees) of school district 

number , of the town of , State of New York, 

do hereby certify that the following sums are required for the main- 
tenance of district school number , of the town of 

, State of New York, for the fiscal year beginning Sep. i, 

and ending June 30, . . . .■ 

For salary for teachers $ 

For library ftinds 

For repairs to school buildings 

For miscellaneous expenses 



Total $ 

§3 It shall be the duty of the town clerk to deliver said certi- 
ficates of the trustee or trustees of the several common school dis- 
tricts, to the town board of each town adopting this system on the 
day of the meeting of the town board for the audit of town accounts 
in each year, and the said town board shall include the gross sum 
called for by the several said certificates or so much thereof as may 
be necessary, in their annual town schedule of expenses, to be cer- 
tified to the board of supervisors in the county in which the said 
town is situated in the same manner as other town expenses, and 
the said board of supervisors shall levy such amount in the next 
succeeding tax levy of the town, in the same manner as other town 
taxes are collected. The amounts thus collected in each town 
shall be paid by the town collector to the supervisor of the town 
and by him paid out on the order of the trustee or trustees of the 
several common school districts to the amount to which each dis- 
trict is entitled, in the same manner as the public school fimds are 
now disbursed. The collector shall be paid the same rate per 
centum for collection as is now allowed by law for the collection of 
moneys, and for the same powers and to be subject to the same 
liabilities. The collector or supervisor shall give bonds to the 



154 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

amount now required by law in the collection, custody and dis- 
bursement of town funds. 

§4 It shall be the duty of the town clerk to furnish the trustee or 
trustees of each common school district the forms in blank pro- 
vided for in section 2 of this act. The cost thereof shall be a town 
charge. 

§5 Any school district lying partly in the town which had 
adopted the system of taxation provided by this act, and partly 
in a town not having adopted said system, shall, for the purpose 
of this act, be considered as lying wholly in the town not having 
adopted said system, and shall so continue until such time as both 
towns have adopted said system of taxation. In case both towns 
have adopted the system of taxation provided by this act, then 
the trustee or trustees in such school district shall certify to the 
town clerk in each town the sum required for the maintenance of 
such district school, and the said sum shall be divided between the 
towns in proportion to the assessed valuation of property, real and 
personal, in the different parts of said district in each town, and 
the amount so divided, shall be included in the schedule of town 
expenses in each town in the same manner as heretofore provided 
in this act. 

§6 Under the provisions of this act town boards shall have the 
power by resolution with the consent in writing of the school com- 
missioner of the district in which such town is situated, to annul or 
consolidate common school districts, and to provide for the trans- 
portation and maintenance of pupils in any common school district 
in such town. 

§7 It shall be the duty of the supervisor to keep a separate 
account with each common school district, in any town adopting 
this act, in said town. He shall not pay for the account of any 
common school district, upon the order of the trustee or trustees, as 
provided in this act, a larger sum of money than the sum of money 
approved by the town board of said district, and levied and collected 
tmder the provisions of this act. 

§8 Whenever any town shall have adopted the system of taxa- 
tion for the maintenance of common schools provided for in this 
act, the board of education of any union free school therein, main- 
taining a department for secondary education, shall receive into 
such academic department, pupils sufficiently advanced to enter 
therein, without the payment of any tuition therefor. And such 
boards of education in such union free school districts are hereby 
empowered to establish the grades and prescribe such examina- 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I55 

tions as may be necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this 
act, and such grading and examination shall be imiform and regu- 
late the admissions thereto of all pupils residing within such town- 
ship. 

§9 All acts or parts of acts which are inconsistent or in conflict 
with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. 

§10 This act shall take effect immediately. 



Holidays 

CHAPTER 677 

An act relating to the construction of statutes constituting chapter i of the 

general laws 

Passed May 18, 1892. As amended by chapter 614, laws of 1897 

§24 The term holiday includes the following days in each year: 
the ist day of January, known as New Year's day; the 12th day 
of February, known as Lincoln's birthday; the 2 2d day of Febru- 
ary, known as Washington's birthday; the 30th day of May, known 
as Memorial day ; the 4th day of July, known as Independence day ; 
the ist Monday of September, known as Labor day, and the 25th 
day of December, known as Christmas day, and if either of such 
days is Stuiday, the next day thereafter; each general election day 
and each day appointed by the President of the United States or 
by the Governor of this state as a day of general thanksgiving, 
general fasting and prayer, or other general religious observances. 
The term, half holiday, includes the period from noon to midnight 
of each Saturday which is not a holiday. The days and half days 
aforesaid shall be considered as the first day of the week, commonly 
called Sunday, and as public holidays or half holidays, for all pur- 
poses whatsoever as regards the transaction of business in the 
public offices of this state, or counties of this state. On all other 
days and half days, excepting Sundays, such offices shall be kept 
open for the transaction of business. 

Note. By section 6 of title 2, chapter 556, laws of 1894, the consolidated school law, all le- 
gal holidays that may occur during the terms of school during every school year, of 160 days 
of school, are included as parts of said 160 days, and exclusive of Saturdays. No Saturday 
shall be counted as part of said 160 days of school, and no school shall be in session on a legal 
holiday. 



156 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

CHAPTER 528, LAWS OF 1905 

An act to amend the Greater New York charter, relative to Anniversary 
L day, so called, as a holiday in the public schools of the borough of Brook- 
lyn, city of New York 

Accepted by the city 

Became a law May 18, 1905, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 Title 4 of chapter 18 of the Greater New York charter, as 
reenacted by chapter 466 of the laws of 1901, is hereby amended 
by adding at the end thereof a new section to be known as section 
1 162, and to read as follows; 

§1162 Anniversary day as a holiday in the public schools of the 
borough of Brooklyn. The 8th day of June in the year 1905 and 
thereafter the first Thursday in June in each year, except in those 
years when the first Thursday in June occurs in the same week 
with Memorial day, and in such years the second Thursday in June, 
known as Anniversary day, and celebrated in commemoration of 
the organization of Sundays' schools, is hereby made and declared 
to be a holiday in all the public schools in the borough of Brooklyn, 
city of New York, and the board of education of such city is hereby 
authorized and directed to cause all the public schools in such bor- 
ough to be closed on such day. 

§2 This act shall take effect immediately. 



Actions by and against trustees of school districts 
CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE 

^§1926 Actions by certain specified officers. An action or special 
proceeding may be maintained, by the trustee or trustees of a school 
district; the overseer or overseers of the poor of a village, or city; 
the county superintendent or superintendents of the poor; or the 
supervisors of a coimty, upon a contract, lawfully made with those 
officers or their predecessors, in their official capacity; to enforce a 
liability created, or a duty enjoined, by law, upon those officers, or 
the body represented by them; to recover a penalty or a forfeiture, 
given to those officers, or the body represented by them; or to 

I So in the original. 

2 As amended by chapter 302 laws of 1897. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I57 

recover damages for an injury to the property or rights of those 
ofhcers, or the body represented by them; although the cause of 
action accrued before the commencement of their term of office. 

§1927 An action or special proceeding may be maintained against 
any of the officers specified in the last section (1926), upon any 
cause of action, which accrues against them, or has accrued against 
their predecessors, or upon a contract made by their predecessors 
in their official capacity, and within the scope of their authority. 

[See also §1928, 1929 and 1930.] 

Section 1931 provides that an execution can be issued upon a 
judgment for a sum of money against the trustee or trustees of a 
school district, and such execution may be issued against and be 
collected out of the property of such officers, and the sum collected 
must be allowed to him on the settlement of his official accounts, 
except as otherwise specially prescribed by law. 

Chapter 318, laws of 1904, amends the Code of Civil Procedure 
relative to the enforcement in the state of a judgment for divorce 
or separation rendered in another state requiring the husband to 
provide for the education and maintenance of his children and the 
support of his wife. 

Note. By section- 83, article 7, title 7 of consolidated school law, chapter 556, laws of 
1894, it is provided, "Whenever any sum or sums of money payable by any person or persons 
named in such tax list, shall not be paid by such person or persons, or collected by such 
warrant within the time therein limited, or the time limited by any renewal of such warrant; 
or in case the property assessed be real estate belonging to an incorporated company, and 
no goods or chattels can be found whereon to levy the tax, the trustee or trustees may sue 
for and recover the same in their name of office." 

A. See subdivision 17, section 14 of article i, title 7 of the consolidated school law, chapter 
556, laws of 1804, relative to''payment of judgments obtained in actions against trustees of 
districts for unpaid teachers' wages; also sections 4 and 5 of article i of title 15 of the con- 
solidated school law, as to payment of costs and damages in actions or proceedings brought 
by or against trustees of districts. 



PENAL CODE 

§46 Attempting to prevent officers from performing duty. A 

person who attempts, by means of any threat or violence, to deter 
or prevent an executive officer from performing any duty imposed 
upon such officer by law, is guilty of a misdemeanor. 

§47 Resisting officers.. A person who knowingly resists by the 
use of force or violence, any executive officer, in the performance 
of his duty, is guilty of a misdemeanor. 

§57 Officer refusing to surrender to successor. A person who, 
having been an executive or administrative officer, wrongfully re- 
fuses to surrender the official seal, or any books or papers apper- 
taining to his office, upon the demand of his lawful successor, is 
guilty of a misdemeanor. 



158 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

§58 Administrative officers. The various provisions of this chap- 
ter which relate to executive officers apply to administrative offi- 
cers, in the same manner as if administrative and executive officers 
were both mentioned. 

§94 Injury, etc., to public records. A person who, wilfully and 
tmlawfully removes, mutilates, destroys, conceals, or obliterates a 
record, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or de- 
posited in a public office or with any public officer by authority of 
law, is punishable by imprisonment for not more than five years, 
or by a fine, not more than $500, or by both. 

§114 Injury to records and misappropriation by ministerial offi- 
cers. A sheriff, coroner, clerk of a court, constable or other minis- 
terial officer, and every deputy or subordinate of any ministerial 
officer, who either: 

! I Mutilates, destroys, conceals, erases, obliterates or falsifies any 
record or paper appertaining to his office; or, 

2 Fraudulently appropriates to his own use or to the use of an- 
other person, or secretes with intent to appropriate to such use, any 
money, evidence of debt or other property intrusted to him in virtue 
of his office, is guilty of felony. 

§117 Neglect of public officers. A public officer, or person hold- 
ing a public trust or employment, upon whom any duty is enjoined 
by law, who wilfully neglects to perform the duty, is guilty of a 
misdemeanor. 

§223 Use of force or violence, declared not unlawful, etc. To 
use or attempt, or offer to use, force or violence upon or toward the 
person of another is not unlawful in the following cases : 

4 When committed by a parent or the authorized agent of any 
parent, or by any guardian, master, or teacher, in the exercise of a 
lawful authority to restrain or correct his child, ward, apprentice 
or scholar, and the force or violence used is reasonable in manner 
and moderate in degree; 

§448 Disturbing lawful meetings. A person who, without au- 
thority of law, wilfully disturbs any assembly or meeting, not un- 
lawful in its character, is guilty of a misdemeanor. 

§470 Misappropriation, etc., and falsification of accounts by pub- 
lic officers. A public officer, or a deputy, or clerk of any such offi- 
cer, and any other person receiving money on behalf of, or for ac- 
count of the people of this state, or of any department of the govern- 
ment of this state, or of any bureau or fund created by law, and in 
which the people of this state are directly or indirectly interested, 
or for or on account of any city, county, village or town, who 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I59 

1 Appropriates to his own use, or to the use of any person not 
entitled thereto, without authority of law, any money so received 
by him as such officer, clerk or deputy, or otherwise; or 

2 Knowingly keeps any false account, or makes any false entry 
or erasure in any accotint of, or relating to, any money so received 
by him, or 

3 Fraudulently alters, falsifies, conceals, destroys or obliterates 
any such account ; or 

4 Wilfully omits or refuses to pay over to the people of this state 
or their officer or agent authorized by law to receive the same, or to 
such city, village, coimty or town, or the proper officer or authority 
empowered to demand and receive the same, any money received 
by him as such officer, when it is his duty imposed by law to pay 
over, or accoimt for, the same; is guilty of felony. 

§471 Other violations of law. An officer or other person men- 
tioned in the last section who wilfully disobeys any provision of 
law regulating his official conduct, in cases other than those speci- 
fied in that section is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine 
not exceeding $1000, or imprisonment not exceeding two years, 
or both. 

§473 A public officer or school officer, who is authorized to sell 
or lease any property, or to make any contract in his official ca- 
pacity, or to take part in making any such sale, lease or contract, 
who voluntarily becomes interested individually in such sale, lease 
or contract, directly or indirectly, except in cases where such sale, 
lease or contract, or payment under the same, is subject to audit 
or approval by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, is guilty 
of a misdemeanor. 

§485 Making false statement in reference to taxes. 'A person 
who, in making any statement, oral or written, which is required 
or authorized by law to be made as the basis of imposing any tax 
or assessment, or of an application to reduce any tax or assessment, 
wilfully makes, as to any material matter, any statement which he 
knows to be false, is guilty of a misdemeanor. 

§485a School district trustee not to draw draft on supervisor in 
certain cases. A school district trustee who issues an order or 
draws a draft on supervisor or collector for any money, unless there 
is at the time sufficient money in the hands of such supervisor or 
collector belonging to the district to meet such order or draft, is 
guilty of a misdemeanor. 

§505 Unlawfully entering building. A person who, under cir- 
cumstances or in a manner not amounting to a burglary, enters a 



l6o NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

building, or any part thereof, with intent to commit a felony or a 
larceny, or any malicious mischief, is guilty of a misdemeanor. 

§515 Other cases of forgery in third degree. A person who, with 
intent to defraud or to conceal any larceny or misappropriation by 
any person of any money or property, either 

1 Alters, erases, obliterates, or destroys an account, book of ac- 
counts, record, or writing, belonging to, or appertaining to the busi- 
ness of, a corporation, association, public office or officer, partner- 
ship, or individuals; or 

2 Makes a false entry in any such account or book of accoimts ; 
or 

3 Wilfully omits to make true entry of any material particular 
in any such account or book of accounts, made, written, or kept 
by him or under his direction ; is guilty of forgery in the third de- 
gree. 



Division of school commissioner districts — Erection of 

CHAPTER 686 

An act in relation to counties, constituting chapter 18 of the general 

laws 

Passed May 18, 1892 

THE COUNTY LAW 

Article Eleven — boards of supervisors 

§12 The board of supervisors shall: 

9 Divide any school commissioner's district within the county 
which contains more than 200 school districts, and erect therefrom 
an additional school commissioner's district, and when such district 
shall have been formed, a school commissioner for the district shall 
be elected in the manner provided by law for the election of school 
commissioners. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS l6l 

CHAPTER 362, LAWS OF 1895 

An act to provide that additional facilities for free instruction in natural 
^ history, geography and kindred subjects, by means of pictorial represen- 
tation and lectures, may be furnished to the free common schools'of each 
city and village of the state that has, or may have, a superintendent of 
free common schools 

Became a law Ap. 19, 1895, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§ I The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is hereby 
authorized to furnish additional facilities for instruction in natural 
history, geography and kindred subjects, by means of pictorial 
representation and lectures, to the free common schools of each 
city and village of the state that has or may have a superintend- 
ent of free common schools. The local school authorities may, 
in their discretion, cause the aforesaid illustrated lectures to be 
repeated to their artisans, mechanics and other citizens on the 
legal holidays and at other times. Any institution instructing 
a teachers training class, or any union free school may have the 
free use of the apparatus provided by this act upon the payment 
to the superintendent of schools loaning the same of necessary 
expenses incurred in such use or for any loss or injury to said 
property. Said superintendent may, from time to time, establish 
the rules and regulations and make and enter into the contracts 
necessary for carrying out the provisions of this act. 

§2 The annual report of each school superintendent to the 
Department of Public Instruction shall contain a full statement 
of the extent to which the instructions described may be given 
and his judgment of the usefulness of the same. 

§3 The sum of $25,000 is hereby appropriated, from any moneys 
not otherwise appropriated, for the preparation for and the sup- 
port and maintenance of said instruction for the year beginning 
on the first day of January, 1895, payable by the Treasurer upon 
the warrant of the Comptroller, upon vouchers approved by the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction and audited by the Comp- 
troller, and the sum of $25,000 shall be appropriated annually 
thereafter, in the general appropration bill, for the preparation 
for and the support and maintenance of said instruction for the 
term of four years from the first day of January, 1895. 

§4 This act shall take effect immediately. 



l6'2 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

Continuing free instruction in natural history, geography and 
kindred subjects, etc, 

CHAPTER 97, LAWS OF 1897 

An act to continue free instruction in natural history, geography and kindred 
subjects in certain institutions, and making an appropriation therefor 

Became a law March 23, 1897, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

§1 The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is hereby au- 
thorized to enter into an agreement with the American Museum 
of Natural History, in the city of New York, for continuing the 
instruction of natural history, geography and kindred subjects in 
the several state normal schools, the Normal College of the City of 
New York, the training school for teachers in the city of Brooklyn, 
the teachers institutes in the different coimties of the state, and to 
the teachers in the common schools of the city of New York, Brook- 
lyn and vicinity, authorized by chapter 428 of the laws of 1886, by 
chapter 337 of the laws of 1888, by chapter 43 of the laws of 1891, 
and by chapter 6 of the laws of 1893, for the further term of four 
years from the ist day of January, 1897. 

§2 Said instruction may include free illustrated lectures to arti- 
sans, mechanics and other citizens, on such legal holidays as the 
State Superintendent and museum authorities may agree upon. 

§3 The sum of $18,000, payable from the free school fund, is 
hereby appropriated for the preparation for and the support and 
maintenance of said course of instruction, for the year beginning 
on the ist day of January, 1897; and the sum of $18,000 shall be 
appropriated annually thereafter in the general appropriation bill 
for the preparation for and the support and maintenance of said 
course of instruction during the term of the agreement authorized 
by this act. 



CHAPTER 489 

An act to provide that additional facilities for free instruction in natural his- 
tory, geography and kindred subjects, by means of pictorial representation 
and lectures, may be furnished to the free common schools of each city 
and village of the state that has, or may have, a superintendent of free 
common schools 

Took effect May 2, 1899 

§1 The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is hereby au- 
thorized to furnish additional facilities for instruction in natural 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 163 

history, geography and kindred subjects, by means of pictorial rep- 
resentation and lectures, to the free common schools of each city 
and village of the state that has, or may have, a superintendent of 
free common schools. The local school authorities may, in their 
discretion, cause the aforesaid illustrated lectures to be repeated 
to their artisans, mechanics and other citizens on the legal holidays 
and at other times. Any institution instructing a teachers train- 
ing class, or any tmion free school, may have the free use of the ap- 
paratus provided by this act upon the payment to the superintend- 
ent of schools loaning the same of necessary expenses incurred in 
such use or for any loss or injury to said property. Said superin- 
tendent may, from time to time, establish the rules and regula- 
tions and make and enter into the contracts necessary for carrying 
out the provisions of this act. 

§2 The annual report of each school superintendent to the De- 
partment of Public Instruction shall contain a full statement of the 
extent to which the instructions described may be given and his 
judgment of the usefulness of the same. 

§3 The sum of $20,000 is hereby appropriated, from any moneys 
not otherwise appropriated, for the preparation for and the sup- 
port and maintenance of said instruction for the year beginning 
on the ist day of January, 1899, payable by the Treasurer upon 
the warrant of the Comptroller, upon vouchers approved by the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction and audited by the Comp- 
troller, and the sum of $20,000 shall be appropriated annually there- 
after, in the general appropriation bill, for the preparation for and 
the support and maintenance of said instruction for the term of 
four years from the ist day of January, 1899. 

§4 The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is hereby au- 
thorized, under such rules and regulations as he may establish, to 
permit the slides for illustrative teaching prepared under the pro- 
visions of this act, to be sold to such educational institutions of this 
state as give free instruction to a portion of their pupils, and are, or 
may be, hereafter chartered by special acts of the Legislature or or- 
ganized under the general laws of this state. 

§5 This act shall take effect immediately. 



164 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

Normal schools 
CHAPTER 311 

[l ALBANY] 

An act for the establishment of a normal school 

Passed May 7, 1844 

§1 The Treasurer shall pay on the warrant of the Comptroller, 
to the order of the Superintendent of Common Schools, from that 
portion of the avails of the literature fiind appropriated by chapter 
241 of the laws of 1834, to the support of academical departments 
for the instruction of teachers of common schools, the sum of $9600 ; 
which sum shall be expended tmder the direction of the Superin- 
tendent of Common Schools, and the Regents of the University, in 
the establishment and support of a normal school for the instruc- 
tion and practice of teachers of common schools in the science of 
education and in the art of teaching, to be located in the cotinty of 
Albany. 

§2 The sum of $10,000 shall, after the present year, be annually 
paid by the Treasurer on the warrant of the Comptroller, to the 
Superintendent of Common Schools, from the revenue of the litera- 
ture fimd, for the maintenance and support of the school so estab- 
lished, for five years, and until otherwise directed by law. 

§3 The said school shall be under the supervision, management 
and government of the Superintendent of Common Schools and the 
Regents of the University. The said Superintendent and Regents 
shall from time to time, make all needful rules and regulations, to 
fix the number and compensation of teachers and others to be em- 
ployed therein, to prescribe the preliminary examination and the 
terms and conditions on which pupils shall be received and in- 
structed therein, the number of pupils from the respective cities 
and coimties, conforming as nearly as may be to the ratio of popu- 
lation, to fix the location of the said school, and the terms and con- 
ditions on which the grounds and buildings therefor shall be rented, 
if the same shall not be provided by the corporation of the city pi 
Albany, and to provide in all things for the good government and 
management of the said school. They shall appoint a board con- 
sisting of five persons, of whom the said Superintendent shall be 
one, who shall constitute an executive committee for the care, man- 
agement and government of the said school imder the rules and 
regulations prescribed as aforesaid, whose duty it shall be from 
time to time to make full and detailed reports to the said Super- 
intendent and Regents, and among other things to recommend the 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 165 

rules and regulations which they deem necessary and proper for the 
said school. 

§4 The Superintendent and Regents shall annually transmit to 
the Legislature a full account of their proceedings and expenditures 
of money under this act, together with a detailed report by said 
executive committee of the progress, condition and prospects of the 
school. 



The foregoing was the first provision made by law in this state 
for the establishment of any normal school. Though general in 
the sense of being for the benefit of the state, the school was located 
at Albany, and to provide uniformity in arrangement, the act is 
inserted here with other local acts relating to normal schools.^ The 
laws providing for the establishment of normal schools generally 
will follow. 

The preceding act was regarded as experimental and for a term 
of five years only. At the expiration of the term, the institution, 
still at the time the only one in the state, was permanently estab- 
lished by the following act: 



CHAPTER 318 
An act for the permanent establishment of the normal school 

Passed Ap. 12, 1848 

§1 The Treasurer shall pay on the warrant of the Comptroller, 
to the order of the State Superintendent of Common Schools, from 
the general fund, a sum not exceeding $15,000, to be expended in 
the erection of a suitable building for the accommodation of the 
State Normal School for the instruction and practice of teachers 
of common schools, in the science of education and the art of teach- 
ing. 

§2 The said building shall be erected imder the direction of the 
executive committee of the school, upon the ground owned by the 
state, and lying in the rear of the geological rooms. 

§3 The said school shall be as heretofore, under the supervision, 
management and government of the State Superintendent of Com- 
mon Schools, and the Regents of the University. The said Super- 
intendent and Regents shall from time to time, make all needful 
rules and regulations, to fix the number and compensation of teach-' 

1 At a meeting of the Regents of the University held Mar. 13, 1890, the corporate name of 
the Albany Normal School was changed to the New York State Normal College. 



l66 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

ers and others to be employed therein ; to prescribe the preHminary 
examination, and the terms and conditions on which pupils shall 
be received and instructed therein ; the number of pupils from the 
respective counties conforming as nearly as may be to the ratio of 
population, and to provide in all things for the good government 
and management of the said school. They shall appoint a board 
consisting of five persons, of whom the said Superintendent shall 
be one, who shall constitute an executive committee for the care, 
management and government of said school, under the rules and 
regulations prescribed as aforesaid, whose duty it shall be from 
time to time to make full and detailed reports to the said Super- 
intendent and Regents, and among other things to recommend the 
rules and regulations which they deem necessary and proper for 
the said school. 

§4 The Superintendent and Regents shall annually transmit to 
the Legislature a full account of their proceedings and of the ex- 
penditures of money under this and previous acts, together with a 
detailed report of the progress, condition and prospects of the 
school. 



CHAPTER 466 

An act in regard to normal schools 

Passed Ap. 7, 1866 

§1 The Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Secretary of 
State, the Comptroller, the State Treasurer, the Attorney General 
and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, shall constitute a 
commission to receive proposals in writing in regard to the estab- 
lishment of normal and training schools for the education and dis- 
cipline of teachers for the common schools of this state from the 
board of supervisors of any county in this state; from the cor- 
porate authority of any city or village, from the board of trustees 
of any college or academy, and from one or more individuals. 
Such commission shall have power to accept or refuse such pro- 
posals, but the number accepted shall not exceed four. Such pro- 
posals shall contain specifications for the purchase of lands and 
the erection thereon of suitable buildings for such schools, or for 
the appropriation of land and buildings to such use, and also the 
furnishing of such schools with furniture, apparatus, books and 
everything necessary to their support and management. Such, 
proposals may have in view either the grant and conveyance of 
such land and premises to the state, or the use of the same for a 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 1 67 

limited time, and for the gift to the state of furniture, apparatus, 
books and other things necessary to conduct such schools. 

§2 If the proposals made by any board of supervisors or by the 
corporate authorities of any city or village shall be accepted, said 
board or corporate authorities shall have power to raise by tax 
and expend the money necessary to carry the same into effect, and 
if in their judgment it shall be deemed expedient, they shall have 
power to borrow money for such purpose, for any time not exceed- 
ing 10 years, and at a rate of interest not exceeding 7 per cent and 
issue the corporate bonds of said cotinty, city or village therefor. 

* ^§3 When the said commission shall have accepted proposals 
and determined the location of any one of such schools, and when 
suitable grounds and buildings have been set apart and appro- 
priated for such schools, and all needful preparations made for 
opening same in accordance with the proposals accepted, the com- 
mission shall certify the same in writing, and then their power 
under this act in relation to such school shall cease, and thereupon 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall appoint a local 
board, consisting of not less than three persons, who shall, respect - 
tively, hold their offices tmtil removed by the concurrent action of 
the Chancellor of the University and the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, and who shall have the immediate supervision and 
management of such school, subject, however, to his general super- 
vision and to his direction in all things pertaining to the school. 
Such local board shall have power to appoint one of their number 
chairman, one secretary and another treasurer of the board. The 
secretary may also be treasurer. The treasurer shall give an 
undertaking to the people of the state for the faithful performance 
of his trust, in an amount fixed by the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. The undertaking shall be approved by the Superin- 
tendent and filed in the office of the . Comptroller. The secretary 
and the treasurer shall each be paid an annual salary to be fixed 
by the local board, with the approval of the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, but the aggregate amount of such salaries shall 
not exceed $400. A majority of each of said boards shall form a 
quorum for the transaction of business, and in the absence of any 
officer of the board, another member may be appointed pro tempore 
to fill his place and perform his duties. It shall be the duty of 
such board to make and establish, and from time to time to alter 
and amend, such rules and regulations for the government of such 

1 As amended by section i, chapter 224, laws of 1897. 
' As amended by section i, chapter 472, laws of igoi. 



1 68 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

schools under their charge, respectively, as they shall deem best, 
which shall be subject to the approval of the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction. They shall also severally transmit through 
him, and subject to his approval, a report to the Legislature on 
the ist day of January in each year, showing the condition of the 
school under their charge during the year next preceding, and 
which report shall be in such form and contain such an accovmt of 
their acts and doings as the Superintendent shall direct, including, 
especially, an account in detail of their receipts and expenditures, 
which shall be duly verified by the oath or affirmation of their chair- 
man and secretary. 

§4 It shall be the duty of the local board, subject to the approval 
of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to prescribe the course 
of study to be pursued in each of said schools. It shall be the duty 
of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to determine what 
number of teachers shall be employed in each school, and their 
wages, whose employment shall also be subject to his approval; 
to order, in his discretion, that one or more of said schools shall be 
composed exclusively of males and one or more of females; to 
decide upon the number of pupils to be admitted to each of said 
schools, and to prescribe the time and manner of their selection, 
but he shall take care in such selection to provide that every part 
of the state shall have its proportionate representation in such 
school as near as may be according to population ; but if any school 
commissioner district or any city, shall not, for any cause, be fully 
represented in either of said schools, then the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction may cause the maximum number of such pupils 
to be supplied from any part of the state, giving preference, how- 
ever, to those living in the county, city or village where such school 
is situated. 

'§5 All applicants for admission shall be residents of this state, 
or, if not, they shall be admitted only upon the payment of such 
tuition fees as shall be, from time to time, prescribed by the Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction. Applicants shall present such 
evidences of proficiency or be subject to such examination at the 
school as shall be prescribed by said Superintendent. From and 
after the 20th day of August, 1889, it shall not be lawful for any 
such school to receive into any academic department connected 
therewith, any pupil not a resident of the territory, for the benefit 
or advantage of whose residents the state has pledged itself to 
maintain such academic department. When admitted, students, 

'Asjamended by chapter 142, laws of 1889. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 169 

iinless they are students in the academic or practice department 
or are nonresidents, shall be entitled to all the privileges of the 
school, free from all charges for tuition or for the use of books or 
apparatus, but every pupil shall pay for books lost by him, and 
for any damage to books in his possession; any pupil may be dis- 
missed from the school by the local board for immoral or disorderly 
conduct, or for neglect or inability to perform his duties. 

§6 The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall prepare suit- 
able diplomas to be granted to the students of such school, who 
shall have completed one or more of the courses of study and dis- 
cipline prescribed, and a diploma signed by him, the chairman 
and secretary of the local board and the principal of the school, 
shall be of itself a certificate of qualification to teach common 
schools, but such diploma may be annulled for the immoral con- 
duct of its holder in like manner as provided for the annulment 
of a diploma of state normal school, in title 2, chapter 555, of the 
laws of 1864. The provisions of this section shall be applicable to 
the Oswego Normal Training School. 

§7 The sum of $12,000 shall be annually and is hereby appro- 
priated for the support of each said normal and training schools 
to be organized imder this act, payable out of the income of the 
common school fttnd, to be paid by the Treasurer, on the warrant 
of the Comptroller upon the certificate of the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction affixed to the proper accounts verified by the 
oath or affirmation of the local board of each school; but none of 
the money hereby appropriated shall be paid for the purchase of 
any grotmd, site or buildings for the use of such schools. 

'§8 Local boards appointed under this act shall consist of not 
more than 13 persons, and the office of any member of any such 
local board, which now consists of more than 13 members, is hereby 
declared vacant; and the said Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion shall appoint a new local board, and may fill, by appointment, 
all vacancies occurring in said local boards. Until the appoint- 
ment of such new local board, and imtil a quorum of such board 
shall have entered upon the discharge of its duties, and during such 
time as any local board shall omit to discharge its duties, the said 
Superintendent is authorized to discharge the duties of such local 
boards or any of its officers ; and the acts of said Superintendent in 
the premises shall be as valid and as binding as if done by a com- 
petent local board or its ofi&cers, or with their cooperation. 



' Added by chapter i8, laws of 1869. 



170 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

*§9 The local board of control of the state normal school at 
Fredonia shall have the same powers and privilege in respect to 
practice departments as boards of education, -under subdivision 3 
of section 15 and section 16 of title 8 of the consolidated school 
law. 



State normal ^and training schools were established under the 
provisions of the foregoing act and special acts, as follows: 

Brockport. Chapters 21 and 96, laws of 1867. 

Buffalo. Chapter 583, laws of 1867. 

Cortland. Chapter 199, laws of 1867; chapter 174, laws of 1868. 

Fredonia. Chapter 223, laws of 1867. 

Geneseo. Chapter 195, laws of 1867; chapter 601, laws of 1868, 
and chapter 294, laws of 187 1. 

Oswego. Chapter 418, laws of 1863, as amended by chapter 445, 
laws of 1865; chapter 170, laws of 1867. 

Potsdam. Chapter 6, laws of 1867. 

New Paltz. Chapter 287, laws of 1885. 

Oneonta. Chapter 374, laws of 1887. 

Plattsburg. Chapter 517, laws of 1889. 

^Jamaica. Chapter 553, laws of 1893. 

Note. There is also a normal college in the city of New York and training schools in other 
cities of the state maintained by local authorities. 



Custody and preservation of normal school buildings 

CHAPTER 348 

An act concerning the grounds, buildings and property of the state provided 
for normal schools, the custody, protection and preservation of the same, 
and the powers of local boards in relation thereto 

Passed May 20, 1880 

§ I The local boards of managers of the respective normal schools 
in this state shall have the custody, keeping and management of 
the grounds and buildings provided or used for the purposes of 
such schools, respectively, and other property of the state per- 
taining thereto, with power to protect, preserve and improve the 
same. 

^§2 [Section 2 providing for the punishment for wilful trespass, 
repealed by sub division 55 of section i of chapter 593, laws of 1886.] 

§3 For the purpose of protecting and preserving such buildings, 
grounds and other property, and preventing injuries thereto, and 

' Added by chapter 677, laws of 1904. 

* Transferred to the city of New York by .chapter 524, laws of 1905. 

' Chapter 14 of the Penal Code provides a penalty for such offenses. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I/I 

preserving order, preventing disturbances, and preserving the 
peace in such buildings and upon such groimds, the local board of 
managers of each of said normal schools shall have power, by- 
resolution or otherwise, to appoint, from time to time, one or more 
special policemen, and the same to remove at pleasure, who shall 
be police officers, with the same powers as constables of the town 
or city where such school is located, whose duty it shall be to pre- 
serve order, and prevent disturbances and breaches of the peace 
in and about the buildings, and on and about the groimds used for 
said school, or pertaining thereto, and protect and preserve the 
same from injury, and to arrest any and all persons making any 
loud or tmusual noise, causing any disturbance, committing any 
breach of the peace, or misdemeanor or any wilful trespass upon 
such grounds, or in or upon said buildings, or any part thereof, 
and convey such person or persons so arrested, with a statement 
of the cause of the arrest, before a proper magistrate to be dealt with 
according to law. 

§4 This act shall take effect immediately. 



Insurance of property of normal schools 

CHAPTER 443 

An act to amend chapter ii6 of the laws of 1882, entitled "An act author- 
izing the local board of the state normal schools of this state to insure the 
buildings and property belonging to said schools for the benefit of the state" 

Became a law May 3, 1894, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

§1 Section i of chapter 116 of the laws of 1882, entitled "An 
act authorizing the local boards of the state normal schools of this 
state to insure the buildings and property belonging to said schools 
for the benefit of the state," is hereby amended so as to read as 
follows : 

§1 The local board of each state normal school of this state is 
hereby authorized to insure and keep insured for the benefit of the 
state all the real and personal property belonging to said school, 
and to pay for the same out of any money or moneys appropriated 
by the state, from time to time, for the maintenance of said school ; 
and any insurance already effected by any such board is hereby 
ratified and confirmed. 

§2 This act shall take effect immediately. 



172 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

Insurance money 

CHAPTER 488 

An act for the disposition and use of insurance moneys received for loss or 
damage of property in the state normal and training schools 

Became a law May 4, 1894, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

§1 Where any loss or damage, against which insurance exists, 
occurs to the real or personal property of any of the normal and 
training schools of the state, the moneys realized from such insur- 
ance shall be deposited by each company in which such property 
is insured in a bank to be designated by the State Comptroller, 
subject to the check of the local board of managers of such school, 
countersigned by the State Comptroller, and shall be kept as a 
separate fund to the credit of the local board of managers of such 
school, and shall be immediately available to be expended \mder 
the direction of such local board of managers, subject to the ap- 
proval of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, to repair 
or replace, wholly or partially, the real or personal property so 
damaged or destroyed. 

§2 This act shall take effect immediately. 



Indians — Appointments to normal schools 

CHAPTER 89 

An act to provide for the support and education of a limited number of Indian 
youth, of the State of New York, at the state normal school 

Passed Mar. 23, 1850 

§1 The Treasurer shall pay, on the warrant of the Comptroller, 
to the order of the State Superintendent of Common Schools, from 
the general fund, a sum not exceeding $1000 per year, for the sup- 
port and education of 10 Indian youth in the State Normal School, 
which moneys are hereby appropriated for the purpose of this act. 

§2 The selection of such youth shall be made by the State Super- 
intendent of Common Schools, from the several Indian tribes 
located within this state ; and in making such selection due regard 
shall be had to a just participation in the privileges of this act by 
each of the said several tribes, and, if practicable, reference shall 
also be had to the population of each of said tribes in determining 
such selection. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I73 

§3 Such youth shall not be under 16 years of age, nor shall any 
of such youth be supported or educated at said normal school for 
a period exceeding three years. 



Tuition money in normal schools — How to be used 
^CHAPTER 492 

Tuition money may be spent for current expenses, etc. The 

local boards of the several state normal schools are hereby author- 
ized to expend, under the direction of the Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Instruction, the moneys now on hand received for tuition in any 
of the departments of the respective schools, and the moneys here- 
after to be received for such tuition, for apparatus, repairs, insur- 
ance, furniture or other improvements upon the grounds or build- 
ings, or for the ordinary expenses of the respective schools. 



Normal schools — Local boards of, to accept money or property 
for benefit of such school 

CHAPTER 165 

An act to authorize the local board of any state normal and training school 
of this state to accept money or other property, for the benefit of such 
school 

Passed Mar. 30, 1896 

§1 By and with the sanction and consent of the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction of this state, it shall be lawful for the local 
board of managers of any state normal and training school of this 
state, to accept, for the state, the gift, grant, devise or bequest of 
money or other property, and to apply the same to any purpose, 
not inconsistent with the general purposes of such school, which 
shall be prescribed in the instrument by which such gift, grant, de- 
vise or request shall be made. 

§2 This act shall take effect immediately. 

. * From the supply bill, laws of 1870. 



174 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

CHAPTER 252, LAWS OF 1905 

An act authorizing villages and cities to insure normal schools 

Became a law Ap. 21, 1905, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 It shall be lawful for each village and city in this state, where- 
in is locate' a state normal and training school, to insure and keep 
insured, the real and personal property of such school against loss 
or damage by fire, when the state refuses to insure, or keep ade- 
quately insured, such property. The insurance is to be in the 
name of the state, and in case of loss, any moneys obtained from 
such insurance, are to be used and disposed of the same as if the 
state had effected such insurance. The amotmt of insurance to be 
carried shall be determined by the municipal authorities of such 
village or city. 

§2 The amount of money necessary to effect and continue such 
insurance shall be raised annually by such village or city at the 
same time, and in the same manner, as the ordinary expenses of 
the village or city are raised. 

§3 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 519, LAWS OF 1905 

An act to amend the labor law relating to children working in streets and 
public places in cities of the first and second classes 

Became a law May 17, 1905, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the state of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 Sections 174, 177 and 179a of article 12 of chapter 415 of the 
laws of 1897, entitled "An act in relation to labor, constituting 
chapter 32 of the general laws," as amended by chapter 151 of the 
laws of 1903, are hereby amended to read as follows: 

§174 Prohibited employment of children [in street trades. No 
male child under 10, and no girl tmder 16 years of age shall in any 
city of the first or second class sell or expose or offer for sale news- 
papers in any street or public place. 

* So in the original. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 1/5 

§177 Regulations concerning badge and permit. The badge 
provided for herein shall be worn conspicuously at all times by 
such child while so working; and such permit and badge shall 
expire at the end of one year from the date of their issue. No 
child to whom such permit and badge are issued shall transfer the 
same to any other person nor be engaged in any city of the first or 
second class as a newsboy, or shall sell or expose or offer for sale 
newspapers in any street or public place without having upon his 
person such badge, and he shall exhibit the same upon demand at 
any time to any police, or attendance officer. 

§i79a Violation of this article, how punished. Any child who 
shall work in any city of the first or second class in any street or 
public place as a newsboy or shall sell or expose or offer for sale 
newspapers under circumstances forbidden by the provisions of 
this article, must be arrested and brought before a court or magis- 
trate having jurisdiction to commit a child to an incorporated 
charitable reformatory or other institution and be dealt with 
according to law; and if any such child is committed to an institu- 
tion, it shall when practicable, be committed to an institution gov- 
erned by persons of the same religious faith as the parents of such 
child. 

§2 Nothing in this act contained shall be deemed or construed 
to repeal, amend, modify, impair or in any manner, affect any pro- 
vision of the Penal Code or the Code of Criminal Procedure. 

§3 This act shall take effect Sep. i, 1905. 



CHAPTER 546, LAWS OF 1904 

An act to amend the town law, relative to fees for services of supervisors 

Became a law May 3, 1904, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the state of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 Section 178 of chapter 569 of the laws of 1890, entitled "An 
act in relation to towns, constituting chapter 20 of the general 
laws," is hereby amended by adding thereto a new subdivision to 
be known as subdivision 3 and to read as follows: 

3 The supervisor of each town, except in the counties of Orange 
and Yates, shall be allowed and paid, in the same manner as other 
town charges are allowed and paid, a fee of i per centum on all 



176 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

moneys paid^out by him as such supervisor, including school moneys 
disbursed by him as provided in the consohdated school law, moneys 
I|aid out by him for damages arising from dogs killing or injuring 
sheep as provided in article 6 of the county law, moneys in his 
hands paid out by him for the relief of the poor, and all other town 
moneys paid out by him for defraying town charges, except moneys 
paid out b)'- him upon the order of the highway commissioner pur- 
suant to section 53 of the highway law. But no such fees shall be 
allowed or paid upon moneys paid over by him to his successor in 
office. Such fees shall be in full compensation for all services 
rendered by him in respect to moneys received and paid out by 
him as such supervisor as provided by law. 
§2 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 568, LAWS OF 1904 
I 
An act to amend section 131, chapter 689, of the laws of 1892 of the banking 

laws for the purpose of authorizing the organization of school savings 

banks in the public schools of this state 

Became a law May 3, 1904, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the state of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 Section 131 as of chapter 689 of the laws of 1892, entitled 
"An act in relation to banking corporations," is hereby amended 
to read as follows: 

§131 Advertisements of unauthorized savings banks prohibited. 

No bank, banking association, individual banker, firm, association, 
corporation, person or persons shall advertise or put forth a sign 
as a savings bank, or in any way solicit or receive deposits as a sav- 
ings bank, except that it shall be lawful for the principal or super- 
intendent of any public school or schools in the State of New York 
or for any persons designated for that purpose by the board of edu- 
cation or other school authority in which such school shall be situ- 
ated to collect once a week or from time to time, small amounts of 
savings from the pupils of said school, the same to be deposited by 
said principal or superintendent on the day of collection in some 
savings banks in the state to the credit of the respective pupils 
from whom the money shall be collected, or if the amoimt collected 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 177 

at any one time shall be deemed insufi&cient for the opening of in- 
dividual accounts, in the names of said principal or superintend- ■ 
ent, in trust, and to be by him eventually transferred to the credit 
of the respective pupils to whom the same belongs. In the mean- 
time, said principal or superintendent shall furnish to the bank a 
list giving the names, signatures, addresses, ages, places of birth, 
parents' names and such other data concerning the respective pupils 
as the bank may require, and it shall be lawful to use the words 
"system of school savings banks" or "school savings banks" in 
circulars, reports and other printed or written matter used in con- 
nection with the purposes of this law. Any bank, banking asso- 
ciation, individual banker, firm, association, corporation, person 
or persons violating this provision shall forfeit to the people of the 
state for every offense the sum of $ioo for every day such offense 
shall be continued. 

§2 This act shall take effect immediately. 

§4 The executive committee of the state normal school shall be 
the guardians of such Indian youth, during the period of their con- 
nection with the school; and shall pay their necessary expenses, 
not to exceed $ioo per year for each pupil, to be defrayed out of 
the money appropriated by the first section of this act. 

§5 The Indian pupils selected in pursuance of this act, and at- 
tending said normal school, shall enjoy the same privileges, of 
every kind, as the other pupils attending said school, including the 
payment of traveling expenses, not exceeding $io to each pupil. 



CHAPTER 222, LAWS OF 1895 

An act to provide for the purchase and display of United States flags in con- 
nection with the pubUc schools of the state 

Became a law Ap. 3, 1895, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 The school authorities of every public school in the several 
cities and school districts of this state shall purchase a United States 
flag, flagstaff and the necessary appliances therefor, and shall dis- 
play such flag upon or near the public school building during 
school hours, and at such other times as the school authorities 
may direct. The necessary funds to defray the expense incurred 



178 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

by this act shall be assessed and collected in the same manner as 
moneys for public school purposes are now raised by law. 
§2 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 481, LAWS OF 1898 

An act to provide for the display of the United States flag on the schoolhouses 
of the state, in connection with the public schools; and to encourage 
patriotic exercises in such schools 

Became a law Ap. 25, 1898, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 It shall be the duty of the school authorities of every public 
school in the several cities and school districts of the state to 
purchase a United States flag, flagstaff and the necessary appli- 
ances therefor, and to display such flag upon or near the public 
school building during schooL hours, and at such other times as 
such school authorities may direct. 

§2 The said school authorities shall establish rules and regu- 
lations for the proper custody, care and display of the flag, and 
when the weather will not permit it to be otherwise displayed, 
it shall be placed conspicuously in the principal room in the school- 
house. 

§3 It shall be the duty of the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction to prepare, for the use of the public schools of the 
state, a program providing for a salute to the flag at the opening 
of each day of school and such other patriotic exercises as may 
be deemed by him to be expedient, tuider such regulations and 
instructions as may best meet the varied requirements of the dif- 
ferent grades in such schools. It shall also be his duty to make 
special provision for the observance in such public schools of 
Lincoln's birthday, Washington's birthday. Memorial day and 
Flag day, and such other legal holidays of like character as may 
be hereafter designated by law. 

§4 The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is hereby 
authorized to provide for the necessary expenses incurred in 
developing and encouraging such patriotic exercises in the public 
school. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I79 

§5 Nothing herein contained shall be construed to authorize 
military instruction or drill in the public schools during school 
hours. 

§6 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 232, LAWS OF 1895 

An act in relation to gospel funds and school lots in the several towns and 

counties of the state 

Became a law Ap. 4, 1895, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 It shall be lawful for the supervisor of any town having 
money arising from the sale of gospel lands, and known as gospel 
fimds, to apportion such among the several school districts of 
his respective town as hereinafter provided. 

§2 Any town having a gospel fund of $500 or less may appor- 
tion such fund with the consent and approval of a majority of the 
town board of such town. 

§3 Any town having a gospel frmd of more than $500 may 
apportion such ftmd in like manner by a vote at any annual or spe- 
cial town meeting. 

§4 Where such apportionment is made, the supervisor shall 
pay to the trustees of the several school districts of his town its 
pro rata share according to the aggregate school attendance of 
each school district in the preceding year. 

§5 The trustees of such school districts shall execute and file 
with the supervisor of such town a bond of twice the amount of 
such apportionment, with sufficient sureties, to be approved by 
such supervisor. 

§6 Such trustees, upon the receipt of such money, shall apply 
the same for such purposes as the school district in annual or special 
meeting shall decide. 

§7 This act shall take effect immediately. 



l8o NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

CHAPTER 550, LAWS OF 1895 
An act in relation to a biennial school census 

Became a law May 7, 1895, with the approval of the Governor, Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as folloivs: 

§1 It shall be the duty of the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, to take or cause to be taken, in the next ensuing 
October after the enactment of this law, and thereafter in every 
second year in the month of October, a school census, in all towns 
and cities of the state having a population of 10,000 or upwards; 
which shall ascertain the following facts, and he shall embody a 
summary of the same in his annual report, for the year in which 
said census is taken, viz, the names and ages of all persons between 
the ages of 4 and 16; the number of persons in each town or city 
coming within the application of this law; between the ages of 
12 and 21 years, that are unable to read or write; the number 
of persons over 4 and under 16 years of age who do not attend 
school because they are obliged to work within school hours; 
the number of persons between 4 and 16 years who are attend- 
ing other than public schools ; and such other facts as in his judg- . 
ment may be of importance in securing the information needed 
to carry out the requirements of article 9, section i of the state 
Constitution, or for the improvement of the common school system. 

§2 In taking this school census, the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction is authorized to determine the work to be done by 
all the common school authorities and employees under his super- 
intendency, and it shall be the duty of. all such authorities and 
public officers having any civil authority in connection with the 
common school administration of the state or of said city or town, 
to aid said Superintendent in all proper ways in the discharge of 
his duties under this act. 

§3 Whoever, being any parent or person having under his or 
her control, or in his or her charge, a child between the ages of 
4 and 16 years, refuses or withholds information in his or her 
possession, sought by said Superintendent or his representative 
for the purpose of a school census, or falsifies in regard to the 
same, shall be liable to and ptinished by fine not exceeding $20, 
or by imprisonment not exceeding 30 days. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS l8l 

§4 The money required for the purpose of carrying this act into 
effect shall be paid by the towns and cities respectively included 
in the provisions of the act, and shall be paid for the service ren- 
dered in taking the school census, on the certificate of the State 
Superintendent that such census has been satisfactorily taken. 

§5 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 768, LAWS OF 1895 

An act authorizing the State Superintendent of PubUc Instruction to appoint 
his chief clerk as second deputy 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is hereby au- 
thorized to appoint his chief clerk as Second Deputy Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction, who shall have power to perform the 
duties of the deputy superintendent of public instruction ; and such 
second deputy shall not receive any extra salary by reason of such 
appointment. 

§2 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 573, LAWS OF 1892 
An act for the encouragement of common schools and public libraries 

Approved May 14, 1892 

Sections i to 8, inclusive, of the above entitled chapter are con- 
tained in and constitute title 13 of the consolidated school law of 
1894, chapter 556 of the laws of 1894, relating to "common schools 
and public libraries." 

*§9 The sum of $55,000 directed to be distributed to the several 
cities and school districts of the state by section 4 of chapter 237 
of the laws of 1838, shall continue to be appropriated and shall be 
known as school library moneys and shall be applied to the pur- 
chase of books for the formation or extension of common school 
libraries, and for the necessary expenses of the state school library 
for the benefit and free use of the teachers of the state, to be cir- 
culated under such rules and regulations as the State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction may establish. All payments for said state 

"• As amended by section i, chapter 546, laws of 1895. 



1 82 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

school library shall be made by the Treasurer upon the warrant of 
the Comptroller, upon bills approved by the State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction. 

§io For the fiscal year beginning Oct. i, 1892, but not thereafter, 
out of said $55,000, school library money, there shall be paid $25,000 
for public library money, and said $25,000 shall be paid by the 
Treasurer, on the warrant of the Comptroller, according to an ap- 
portionment to be made for the benefit of free libraries by the 
Regents in accordance with their rules and authenticated by the 
University seal ; provided that none of this money shall be spent for 
books except those approved or selected and furnished by the Re- 
gents; that no locality shall share in the apportionment imless it 
shall raise for the same purpose not less than an equal amotmt 
from taxation or other local sources ; that for any part of the appor- 
tionment not payable directly to the library trustees the Regents 
shall file with the Comptroller proper vouchers showing that it has 
been spent in accordance with law exclusively for books for free 
public libraries or for proper expenses incurred for their benefit; 
and the books paid for by the state shall be subject to return to 
the Regents whenever the library shall neglect or refuse to con- 
form to the ordinances imder which it secured them. 

§11 Repeals. Section 4, chapter 237 of the laws of 1838 is here- 
by repealed, and sections i to 9 of this act are hereby substituted 
for title 8, of chapter 555 of the laws of 1864, which said title 8 is 
hereby repealed; and all other acts repugnant to or inconsistent 
with the provisions of this act are, so far as they are so inconsistent, 
hereby repealed. 

§12 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 668, LAWS OF 1904 

An act to encourage local school authorities in establishing school libraries 
for use in the common schools 

Became a law May 9, 1904, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 The sum of $45,000 is hereby appropriated for the establish- 
ment and extension of school libraries for use in the common schools 
in addition to all sums otherwise appropriated therefor, and the 
moneys herein appropriated, together with any other money that 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 183 

may be available or that may hereafter be appropriated, for that 
purpose, shall be distributed and expended in accordance with 
regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of Education, pro- 
vided that every city and school district which shall share in the 
distribution thereof shall raise by tax or otherwise and shall ex- 
pend for the same purpose a sum at least equal to that granted 
such city or school district from state funds. 

§2 All moneys granted for school libraries shall be paid by the 
State Treasurer on the warrant of the Comptroller on the certifi- 
cate of the Commissioner of Education to the treasurers or cham- 
berlains of the respective cities and to the fiscal officers of the 
school districts entitled thereto ; and shall be used only in the pur- 
chase of such books as shall have been approved by the Commis- 
sioner of Education. 

§3 The Commissioner of Education may on request of local 
school authorities select or buy books for any library or school 
tmder his supervision. 

§4 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 1 03 1, LAWS OF 1895 
An act to encoxirage and to promote the professional training of teachers 
^§1 The board of education or the public school authorities of 
any city or of any village employing a superintendent of schools, 
may establish, maintain, direct and control one or more schools or 
classes for the professional instruction and training of teachers in 
the principles of education and in the method of instruction for not 
less than 38 weeks in each school year. 

^§2 Toward the maintenance and support of these schools and 
classes established pursuant to this act, or heretofore established 
and maintained for similar purposes, and whose requirements for 
admission and whose course of studies are made with the approval 
of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and tmder 
whose direction such classes shall be conducted, the said Superin- 
tendent is hereby authorized and directed in each year to set apart, 
to apportion, and to pay from the free school fund $1 for each 
week of instruction of each pupil, and the sum of $40,000 is hereby 
appropriated to carry out the provisions of this act until the close 
of the school year of 1897. Such apportionment and payment 

1 As ameaded by chapter 495, laws of 1897. 
^ As amended by chapter 646, laws of 1896. 



184 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

shall be made upon the report of the local superintendent of schools' 
filed with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who shall 
draw his warrant upon the State Treasurer for the amount appor- 
tioned. 

§3 If the total sum to be apportioned and to be paid, as provided 
by section 2 of this act, shall in anyone year exceed the said sum of 
$100,000, the said State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall 
apportion to each school and class its pro rata of said sum upon the 
basis described in section 2 of this act, 

§4 After Jan. i, 1897, no person shall be employed or licensed to 
teach in the primary and grammar schools of any city authorized 
by law to employ a superintendent of schools, who has not had suc- 
cessful experience in teaching for at least three years, or, in lieu 
thereof, has not completed a three years course in, and graduated 
from a high school or academy having a course of study of not less 
than three years, approved by the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, or from some institution of learning of equal or higher 
rank, approved by the same authority, and who, subsequently to 
such graduation, has not graduated from a school or class for the 
professional training of teachers, having a course of study of not 
less than 38 weeks, approved by the State Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Instruction. Nothing in this act shall be construed to restrict 
any board of education of any city from requiring such additional 
qualifications of teachers as said board may determine; nor shall 
the provisions of this act preclude the board of education of any 
city or village from accepting the diploma of any state normal and 
training school of the State of New York, or a state certificate ob- 
tained on examination, as an equivalent for the preparation in 
scholarship and professional training herein required. 

§5 All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby 
repealed. 

§6 This act shall take effect immediately. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 185 

CHAPTER 492, LAWS OF 1900 

An act to secure equal rights to colored children in the State of New York, 
and to repeal section 28, article 11, title 15, of chapter 556 of the laws of 
1894, entitled "The consolidated school law " 

Became a law Ap. 18, 1900, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 No person shall be refused admission into or be excluded 
from any public school in the State of New York on account of 
race or color. 

§2 Section 28, article 11, title 15 of chapter 556 of the laws of 
1894, which reads as follows: "The school authorities of any city 
or incorporated village the schools of which are or shall be organ- 
ized imder title 8 of this act, or under special act, may, when they 
shall deem it expedient, establish a separate school or separate 
schools for instruction of children and youth of African descent 
resident therein, and over 5 and under 21 years of age; and such 
school or schools shall be supported in the same manner and to the 
same extent as the school or schools supported therein for white child- 
ren and they shall be subject to the same rules and regulations, and be 
furnished facilities for instruction equal to those furnished to the 
white schools therein," is hereby repealed. 

§3 This act shall take effect on the first day of September, 1900. 



CHAPTER 201, LAWS OF 1901 

An act providing for fire drills in the schools of this state 

Became a law Mar. 27, 1901, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 It shall be the duty of the principal or other person in charge 
of every public or private school or educational institution within 
the state, having more than 100 pupils, to instruct and train the 
pupils by means of drills, so that they may in a sudden emergency 
be able to leave the school building in the shortest possible time and 
without confusion or panic. Such drills or rapid dismissals shall 
be held at least once in each month. 



1 86 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

§2 Neglect by any principal or other person in charge of any 
public or private school or educational institution to comply with 
the provisions of this act shall be a misdemeanor, punishable at 
the discretion of the court by a fine not exceeding $50. Such fine 
to be paid to the pension fund of the local fire department where 
there is such a ftmd. 

§3 It shall be the duty of the board of education or school board 
or other body having control of the schools in any town or city to 
cause a copy of this act to be printed in the manual or handbook 
prepared for the guidance of teachers, where such manual or hand- 
book is in use or may hereafter come into use. 

§4 The provisions of this act shall not apply to colleges or uni- 
versities. 

§5 This act shall take effect June i, 1901. 



CHAPTER 125, LAWS OF 1903 

An act to provide for the division of union free school districts containing 
territory of two or more incorporated villages 

Became a law Ap. 3, 1903, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
a majority being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 In any union free school district within the limits of which 
there shall be territory of two or more incorporated villages the 
board of trustees of any village whose entire district is within said 
school district may call a special meeting of the voters, duly quali- 
fied under the consolidated school law to vote at a school meeting, 
to determine whether that portion of any such school district com- 
prising the village holding such special meeting shall be separated 
from such school district and be a separate tinion free school dis- 
trict with limits corresponding with the limits of such village. 
Notice of the time and place of any such special meeting shall be 
published by the board of trustees calling the same once a week 
for two successive weeks in each newspaper actually printed and 
published in such village and if there be no such newspaper pub- 
lished in such village, such notice shall then be given by posting 
in at least ten conspicuous places in said village. 

§2 The village clerk of the village holding such special meeting 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 187 

shall cause to be prepared and furnished for the use of the voters 
at any such special meeting ballots (which shall conform as near 
as may be to the election law) in favor of and against organizing 
the territory within such village into a separate school district. 
The members of the board of trustees of any village holding such 
special meeting shall act as inspectors and shall canvass the votes 
cast and if a majority thereof shall be in favor of constituting the 
territory within such village a separate school district said board 
of trustees shall forthwith certify the result of such canvass to the 
school commissioner of the school commissioner district in which 
such village is situated, and said school commissioner shall there- 
upon declare by certificate under his hand the territory within 
such village limits a separate school district and designate it as 
union free school district number of the town of 

§3 Within ID days after the school commissioner shall have desig- 
nated any separate school district organized under the provisions 
of this act he shall call a special meeting of the qualified voters of 
such school district at a time and place to be named by him to elect 
a board of education to consist of six members, two of whom shall 
be elected for one year, two for two years and two for three years 
from the date of the annual school meeting next succeeding such spe- 
cial meeting. The call for such special meeting so to be made by the 
school commissioner shall be published as provided in section i of 
this act for the special meeting to determine as to whether the 
school district shall be divided. The school commissioner shall 
call such special meeting to order and the voters present shall elect 
a chairman and secretary for such meeting and appoint three 
tellers to canvass the votes cast. After the votes shall have been 
canvassed the chairman and secretary shall forthwith certify the 
result of such canvass to the said school comm.issioner, who shall 
within five days thereafter call the members of the board of edu- 
cation, shown by said certificate to have been elected, together 
for the purpose of organization, and said certificate of the result 
of such canvass shall thereupon become a part of the record of 
said school district. 

§5 If at the time of the organization of any school district as 
provided in this act there shall be any outstanding bonded or 
other indebtedness chargeable against the school district of which 
the territory so separately organized was a part, the school com- 
missioner shall apportion said indebtedness between the newly 
organized district and the remaining portion of the old district 
according to the assessed valuation of each and the amoimts of 



I06 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

said indebtedness so apportioned shall become a charge for principal 
and interest upon the respective districts as though the same had 
been incurred by said districts separately. 

§6 Nothing herein contained shall be construed so as to prevent 
any child of school age residing in any part of a school district so 
divided from attending school in the part of the district remaining 
after any such division imtil the close of the school year in which 
such division was made, provided, however, that the tax for said 
school year has theretofore been levied on the real and personal 
property of the school district before the division for the support 
of such, school for the current school year. 

§7 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 542, LAWS OF 1903 

An act to provide for free tuition of nonresident pupils in schools maintaining 
an academic department and making an appropriation therefor 

Became a law May 11, 1903, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 The sum of $100,000, or so much thereof as may be neces- 
sary, is hereby appropriated for the payment by the Comptroller 
of the tuition of nonresident pupils from schools in this state not 
maintaining an academic department who shall be admitted to 
schools maintaining an academic department without other ex- 
pense for tuition than that provided in this act. Such payment 
however shall only be made upon the joint certificate of the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction and of the Chancellor of the 
University of the State of New York in accordance with regula- 
tions jointly established by them to such schools as maintain a 
course of study approved by them and shall be at the rate of $20 
per year for a school year of at least 32 weeks or a proportionate 
amount for a shorter period of attendance of not less than eight 
weeks. 

§2 This act shall take effect immediately. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 189 

CHAPTER 388, LAWS OF 1905 

An act to authorize the acceptance by this state of gifts, bequests, and assign- 
ments of the bonds, warrants, choses in action, or other obligations of any 
other state and to enforce the collection thereof 

Became a law May 16, 1905, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 Whenever any person or persons, copartnership, corporation 
or association shall give, bequeath or assign to the State of New 
York any bonds, warrants, choses in action or other obligations of 
any other state, the governor is hereby authorized in his discretion, 
to receive and accept the same for the benefit of the state and the 
right and title thereto and therein shall thereupon pass to and vest 
in this state and the same and all the proceeds thereof when col- 
lected shall be held by the Comptroller in a special account or fund 
subject to be appropriated by the Legislature only for the support 
of common schools, or for the promotion of some educational 
interest in the state. 

§2 Whenever it shall be necessary to protect or assert the right 
or title of the state to any such bonds, warrants, choses in action 
or other obligations so received, or to collect or enforce the same 
or any part thereof, principal or interest, the Attorney General is 
hereby authorized and directed to take the necessary and proper 
proceedings or to bring suit thereon in the name of the state in 
any court of competent jurisdiction, state or federal, and to prose- 
cute all such suits or proceedings to a termination. 

§3 This act shall take effect immediately. 



190 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

CHAPTER 393, LAWS OF 1905 

An act to amend chapter 516 of the laws of 1892, entitled, "An act to advance 
learning, the arts and sciences, and to promote the pubUc welfare by pro- 
viding for the conveyance, holding and protection of property, and the 
creation of trusts for the founding, endowing, erection and maintenance 'of 
public libraries, museums and other educational institutions within this 
state" 

Became a law May 16, 1905, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 Section i of chapter 516 of the laws of 1892, entitled, "An 
act to advance learning, the arts and sciences, and to promote the 
public welfare by providing for the conveyance, holding and pro- 
tection of property, and the creation of trusts for the founding, 
endowing, erection and maintenance of public libraries, museums 
and other educational institutions within this state," is hereby 
amended to read as follows: 

§1 Any person desiring, in his lifetime, to promote the public 
welfare by foimding, endowing and having maintained a public 
library, museum or other educational institutions, or a chapel and 
crematory within this state, may to that end and for such pur- 
poses by grant, in writing, convey to a trustee, or any number of 
trustees, named in such grant (and to their successors), any property, 
real or personal, belonging to such person, and situated or being 
within this state. 

§2 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 424, LAWS OF 1904 

An act to provide for the compulsory education of Indian children on the 

Indian reservations 

Became a law Ap. 27, 1904, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 Short title. This chapter shall be known as the compulsory 
education law for the Indian reservations. 

§2 Definitions. The term person, in parental relations to an In- 
dian child, includes the parents, guardians or other persons, wheth 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS IQI 

one or more, lawfully having the care, custody or control of such 
child. An Indian child under i6 years of age required by the per- 
sons in parental relations to such child to attend upon lawful in- 
struction at a school or elsewhere upon which such child is entitled 
to attend, is lawfully required to attend such school. An Indian 
child between 6 and i6 years of age, who is required by law to at- 
tend upon instruction, and is required by the persons in parental 
relations to such child, to attend upon lawful instruction at a school 
or elsewhere upon which such child is entitled to attend, is law- 
fully required to attend upon such instruction, and if not required 
by the persons in parental relation to such child to attend upon 
any instruction, is lawfully required to attend a school on the reser- 
vation, upon which such child shall reside. 

§3 Required attendance upon instruction. Every Indian child 
between 6 and i6 years of age, in proper physical and mental con- 
dition to attend school, shall regularly attend upon instruction at 
a school in which at least the common school branches of reading, 
spelling, writing, arithmetic, English grammar and geography are 
taught, or upon equivalent instruction by a competent teacher else- 
where than at such school as follows: Every Indian child between 
14 and 16 years of age not regularly and lawfully engaged in any 
useful employment or service, and every such child between 6 and 
14 years of age, shall so attend upon instruction as many days an- 
nually during the period between the first days of September and 
the following July as a public school of the community or district 
of the reservation, in which such child resides, shall be in session 
during the same period. If any such child shall so attend upon 
instruction elsewhere than at the public school, such instruction 
shall be at least equivalent to the instruction given to Indian chil- 
dren of like age at a school of the community or district in which 
such child shall reside; and such attendance shall be for at least 
as many hours of each day thereof, as are required of children of 
like age at public schools and no greater total amount of holidays 
and vacations shall be deducted from such attendance during the 
period such attendance is required than is allowed in public schools 
for children of like age. Occasional absences from such attendance, 
not amounting to irregular attendance in a fair meaning of the 
term, shall be allowed upon such excuses only as would be allowed 
in like cases by the general rules and practices of public schools. 

§4 Duties of persons in parental relation to Indian children. 
Any person in parental relation to an Indian child between 6 and 
16 years of age in proper physical and mental condition to attend 



192 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

school, shall cause such child to so attend upon instruction or shall 
present to the superintendent of Indian schools of the reservation 
on which such child resides proof by affidavit that he is unable to 
compel such child to so attend. A violation of this section shall 
be a misdemeanor, punishable for the first offense by a fine not ex- 
ceeding $5 or by imprisonment not exceeding 10 days, and for 
each subsequent offense, by a fine not exceeding $25, or by imprison- 
ment not exceeding 30 days, or by both such fine and imprison- 
ment. Courts of special sessions shall, subject to removal, as pro- 
vided in sections 57 and 58 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, have 
exclusive jurisdiction in the first instance to hear, try and deter- 
mine charges of violation of this section within their respective 
jurisdictions. 

§5 Persons employing Indian children unlawfully to be fined. 
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, association or corpora- 
tion to employ any Indian child residing on any Indian reserva- 
tion between 6 and 14 years of age, in any business or service what- 
ever, during any part of the term during which the school in the 
community or district in which such child resides is in session, or 
to employ any Indian child residing on any reservation between 
14 and 16 years of age, who does not, at the time of such employ- 
ment present a consent in writing signed by the superintendent 
of the Indian schools on the reservation on which such child re- 
sides to the effect that such child may be employed, and specify- 
ing the nature of the service and the duration of such service or 
employment; and any person, firm, association or corporation who 
shall employ any Indian child contrary to the provisions of this 
section shall for each offense forfeit and pay to the superintendent 
of Indian schools of the reservation on which such child resides, a 
penalty of $25, the same, when paid, to be used for the support 
and maintenance of the schools on said reservation. 

§6 Teachers record of attendance. An accurate record attend- 
ance of all Indian children between 6 and 16 years of age shall be 
kept by the teacher of every Indian school, showing each day, by 
the year, month, day of the month and day of the week, such at- 
tendance, and the number of hours in each day thereof; and each 
teacher upon whose instruction such Indian child shall attend else- 
where than at the school in the community or district of the reser- 
vation where he resides, shall keep a like record of such attendance. 
Such record shall at all times be open to the superintendent of the 
Indian schools on their respective reservations and to such persons 
as -they may designate as attendance officers, who may in- 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 193 

spect or copy the same, and any teacher shall answer all inquiries 
lawfully made by such superintendents or attendance officer or 
other persons ; and a wilful neglect or refusal to keep such a record 
or answer any such inquiry shall be a misdemeanor. 

§7 Attendance officers. The superintendents of the Indian 
schools on their respective reservations shall supervise the enforce- 
ment of this act within said reservations and they shall appoint and 
may remove at pleasure such number of attendance officers as the 
Commissioner of Education shall deem necessary, whose jurisdic- 
tion shall extend over all school districts on the reservation for 
which they shall be appointed, and he shall prescribe their duties, 
not inconsistent with this act and may make rules and regulations 
for the performance thereof. And said superintendent is also 
vested with the same power and authority as the attendance offi- 
cers appointed by him. 

§8 Arrest of truants. Any attendance officer may arrest with- 
out warrant anywhere within the state, any Indian child between 
6 and i6 years of age, found away from his home and who is then 
a truant from instruction upon which 'he is lawfully required to 
attend within the district or districts of which such attendance offi- 
cer has jurisdiction. He shall forthwith deliver a child so arrested 
either to the person in parental relation to the child, or to the 
teacher of the school from which said child is then a truant, or in 
case of habitual or incorrigible truants, shall bring them before a 
magistrate for commitment to a truant school, as provided in the 
next, section. 

§9 Superintendent to contract for keeping of truants. The su- 
perintendent of Indian schools on any of the Indian reservations 
may contract with any city or district having a truant school, for 
the confinement, maintenance and instruction therein of any child 
who shall be committed to such school as a truant by any magis- 
trate before whom such child shall have been examined upon the 
charge of truancy. The costs and expenses attending the support 
and maintenance of any truant, as herein provided shall be audited 
by the Commissioner of Education and paid in the same manner 
as the expenses of supporting and maintaining the schools on said 
reservation are paid. 

§io Enumeration. The superintendent of Indian schools on the 
several Indian reservations shall whenever so directed by the Com- 
missioner of Education, make a complete enumeration of the In- 
dian inhabitants on said reservations; such enumeration shall be 
made between the first day of May and the first day of August and 



194 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

shall be tabulated by said superintendent, and such tabulation 
shall show the name and age of each Indian person on said reserva- 
tions and shall show in what school district each of such persons re- 
side. Such superintendents shall designate in such tabulation, the 
district in which each Indian child of school age shall be required 
to attend school. 

§11 Payment of services herein required. The superintendents 
of Indian schools on the several Indian reservations shall be en- 
titled to receive the sum of $3 per day, in addition to the salary 
now paid to such superintendents, for each day necessarily spent 
by them in enforcing the provisions of this act and also for each 
day necessarily spent in making the enumerations of the reserva- 
tions and tabulating the same, together with their necessary ex- 
penses while employed in enumerating and tabulating the same 
and enforcing the provisions of this act. Each of the attendance 
officers herein provided for shall receive such sum per day as shall 
be fixed by said superintendents of Indian schools for each day 
necessarily employed in enforcing this act; and each person em- 
ployed by said superintendents to assist them in taking and tabu- 
lating the census of the residents of said reservations, shall be en- 
titled to such compensation as he shall contract for with said super- 
intendents of said schools, not exceeding $2 per day, together with 
necessary expenses. The expense in taking the enumeration herein 
provided for shall be audited by the Commissioner of Education 
and paid in the same manner as other accounts for the support and 
maintenance of the schools on said reservations are now paid. 

§12 Chapter 183 of the laws of 1900 and chapter 188 of the laws 
of 1 90 1 are hereby repealed. 

§13 This act shall take effect May i, 1904. 



CHAPTER 155, LAWS OF 1905 

An act to bring union free school district no. 11, town of Southampton, in 
the county of Suffolk, under the provisions of the consolidated school law 

Became a law Ap. 8, 1905, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 Union free school district no. 11, town of Southampton, in 
the cotmty of Suffolk, is continued tmder such name and number 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I95 

and the boundaries thereof shall be the same as its boundaries now 
are until altered as the law provides. 

§2 The said irnion free school district no. ii, town of Southamp- 
ton, shall hereafter, in all respects, be subject to and governed by 
the provisions of chapter 556 of the laws of 1894, being the con- 
solidated school law, and all amendments which have been and 
which may hereafter be made thereto. 

§3 Chapter 441 of the laws of 1862 and all amendments thereto 
are hereby repealed. 

§4 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 587, LAWS OF igoS 

An act to amend the state finance law, in relation to the education fund 

Became a law May 19, 1905, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§1 Section 80 of article 4 of chapter 413 of the laws of 1897, 
entitled "An act relating to state finances, constituting chapter 10 
of the general laws," as amended by chapter 225 of the laws of 
1904 is hereby amended to read as follows: 

§ 80 The education fund. The common school fimd, the litera- 
ture fund, and the United States deposit fimd, shall continue to 
consist of all moneys, securities or other property in the treasury 
of the state, or under the control of any state officer, and of all 
debts due the state, or real property owned by it, belonging to such 
ftmd. The proceeds of all lands which belonged to the state on 
Jan. I, 1823, except the parts thereof reserved or apportioned to 
public use, or ceded to the United States, shall belong to the com- 
mon school fund. In case of any diminution of capital belonging 
to the common school fimd. United States deposit fimd or litera- 
ture f\md, there shall be transferred to the capital of such fimd or 
funds from the income thereof so much as may be necessary to 
preserve the capital inviolate. Of the income of the- United States 
deposit fund, $25,000 shall annually be added to the capital of the 
common school fund. It shall be the duty of the Comptroller, at 
the close of each fiscal year, to transfer to the general fund the 
remainder of the income of the common school fund, United States 
deposit fund and literature ftind, which together with such amoimts 
as may be raised or received by taxation or otherwise for educa- 



196 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

tional purposes, shall constitute the education fund, and appropri- 
ations therefrom may be made annually for the support of the edu- 
cational system of the state, to be apportioned by the Commis- 
sioner of Education in the manner provided by law, which appor- 
tionment shall be certified by the Commissioner of Education to 
the Comptroller for distribution and payment. The amount 
appropriated by the Legislature for the support and maintenance 
of the common school system of the state, shall be payable from 
the treasury upon the warrant of the Comptroller, and the Comp- 
troller shall coiintersign and enter all checks drawn by the Treas- 
urer in payment of his warrants, and all receipts of the Treasurer 
for such payments paid to the Treasurer, and no such receipts 
shall be evidence of payment unless they be so countersigned. 
§ 2 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 767, LAWS OF 1895 

An act to provide additional compensation for teachers of common schools 
in any town of the state who have taught therein continuously 25 years 
or more 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§ I Upon the petition of 2 5 or more taxpayers of any town in the 
coimty of the state requesting the submission at the next ensuing 
annual town meeting of such town made not less than 10 days be- 
fore the accruing thereof, of the question of making provision by 
taxation upon the taxable property in such town for a sum of money 
sufficient to pay such teachers resident of such town, who have been 
employed in the common schools thereof for not less than 2 5 years, and 
have rendered continuous service in teaching for such period, with 
such intermission only as may have occurred in the allotment of 
school terms or from sickness, the town board of such town shall 
cause to be submitted to the taxpayers of such town, at the next 
ensuing town meeting upon due notice thereof published in a news- 
paper printed in such town, if any paper be published therein, or 
printed or written notices posted in not less than 10 public places 
in such town, the question whether a sufficient sum of money be 
raised from the taxable property within such town to pay said 
teachers as compensation for long and meritorious service so 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 197 

long as said teachers reside in such town, upon the conditions, at 
the times and in the manner hereinafter provided. 

§2 In the event of such petition being so made and presented to 
the supervisor of any town, and notice being given as provided in 
section i of this act, the town board shah furnish the necessary- 
ballots in number and forms for the use of the voters of such town 
at the next ensuing annual town meeting, and shall provide separ- 
ate ballot boxes for the reception of ballots cast 'thereat on the 
question submitted. One half of the number of said ballots shall 
have printed thereon, respectively, "for teachers' pension fund," 
and the other half shall have printed thereon, respectively, "against 
teachers' pension fund," and such votes as may be cast shall be 
counted and returned by the officers presiding at said town meet- 
ing the same as other votes are coimted and returned. If a ma- 
jority of the votes so cast be found to be in favor of raising a sum 
of money sufficient to provide for such fund, and not otherwise, 
the town board of such town shall immediately thereafter proceed 
to ascertain what teachers of such class are entitled to the benefits 
conferred by this act and to receive their proportionate share of 
the money so voted to be paid, and said board shall require of 
every person applying therefor, who has taught in the common 
schools of such town for the period of 25 years or more, to make 
concise statement of the term of service, the districts in which he 
or she has taught and the wages, monthly or weekly, received dur- 
ing the last year in which said teacher taught, which statement 
shall be acknowledged before any officer qualified to take acknowl- 
edgments, and filed in the office of the clerk of such town. There- 
upon, and at the next annual meeting of the board of supervisors 
of the coimty, and at every annual meeting thereafter, the said 
board shall include in the tax levy of the town so voting as here- 
inbefore provided in favor of a teachers' pension fund, the amotmt 
necessary in each year as estimated and reported by the town board 
of such town, which sum, when collected, shall be paid over by the 
collector of such town, to the supervisor thereof, who shall pay out 
the said money to the teachers found to be entitled thereto in 
amount to each such teacher, in monthly payments equal to one 
half the sum received as teachers' monthly or weekly wages by each 
such teacher* during the last year such teacher was employed to 
teach in the common schools of such town. And such teachers 
. sharing in the money so appropriated and paid shall be allowed 
such amount in instalments herein provided as long as they con- 
tinue to reside in such town, but no longer, and they shall, in re- 



198 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

ceiving the benefits conferred by this act be deemed to be retired 
from teaching and placed upon a roll kept by the town clerk of the 
town as superannuated and retired teachers. 

§3 When a vote has been had on the proposition provided to be 
so submitted by this act in any town, and such vote shall have 
been against the teachers' pension fund, another vote on the same 
question shall not be taken again within three years of the first 
vote so taken; [subject, however, if not physically disabled, to per- 
form such service in the place of any teacher temporarily absent 
or disqualified, as the school commissioner may require and direct 
without additional compensation] ^ 

§4 This act shall take effect immediately. 



CHAPTER 608, LAWS OF 1905 

^An act to establish a retirement fund for pensioning retired school teachers 
in the city of Rochester, and to regulate the collection and management 
thereof 

Accepted by the city 

Became a law May 25, 190S, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present 

The people of the State of Nezv York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follozvs: 

§1 Subdiv. I The board of education, the superintendent of 
schools, one principal, and one teacher of the public schools shall 
constitute a board of trustees who shall have the general care and 
management of the public school teachers' retirement fund created 
by this act. In September, 1905, and in the same month every 
second year thereafter, a meeting of all the teachers and principals 
of the public schools of Rochester shall be called by the superintend- 
ent, at which time and place one principal and one teacher, then in 
active service, shall be chosen by the assembled teachers and prin- 
cipals to serve for a term of two years upon the board of trustees 
hereinbefore mentioned. The said board of trustees is empowered 
to make payment from said fund, of the annuities granted in pur- 

' This bracketed clause should come at the close of section 2. The mistake of the engrossing 
department was not discovered till the law was signed. 

j2 This chapter is printed in this work for the purpose of supplying one of the most recent 
laws on this subject. Information relative to the laws on this subject for other cities may be 
obtained by communicating with the superintendent of schools for the several cities of the 
state. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS I99 

suance of this act; to take all necessary and proper action in the 
premises ; and to make such rules and regulations for the administra- 
tion and investment of said fund as it may deem best, except that 
neither the whole nor any part of said fiuid shall be invested in any 
manner otherwise than as the savings banks of the state are by law 
permitted to invest their fimds. 

Subdiv. 2 The public school teachers' retirement fund created 
by this act shall consist of the following moneys with interest or 
income therefrom, to wit: 

a All donations, legacies and gifts which shall be made to said 
fimd. 

b 2% per annum of the respective salaries paid to the superin- 
tendent of schools, supervisors, principals and teachers regularly 
employed in the public schools of Rochester, except that no such 
deduction shall be made from the salary of a superintendent or 
a supervisor unless within one month from the date this act shall 
take effect or from the time of his or her appointment, notice in 
writing shall be given the board of trustees of his or her desire to 
come within the provisions of this act. 

c An amount to be paid each year from the funds appropriated 
by the city of Rochester for the board of education for the main- 
tenance of the -department of education, equal to one half the total 
sum deducted from the salaries of the superintendent, supervisors, 
principals and teachers for that year. 

d All moneys which may be obtained from other sources or by 
other means duly and legally devised for the increase of said fund 
by the board of trustees or with their consent. 

Subdiv. 3 The board of education in making the pay rolls for the 
superintendent, supervisors, principals and teachers hereinbefore 
mentioned, shall semiannually deduct from the- salary of each of 
said persons a sum equal to 1% of his or her annual salary, except 
that no such deduction shall be made from the salary of a super- 
intendent or a supervisor who does not come imder the provisions 
of this act as hereinbefore mentioned, and shall certify the amoimt 
of such deductions and the names of the persons from whose sal- 
aries such deductions have been made; and such certificate shall 
accompany the pay roll and a warrant for the amount of the deduc- 
tions so certified shall be drawn payable to the city comptroller, 
and shall be deposited by him with the city treasurer, who shall 
retain the same subject to the disposal of said board of trustees as 
hereinbefore provided. At the same time a warrant shall be 
drawn payable_to the city_^comptroller for a sum equal to one half 



200 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

of the amount of the deductions made from the salaries of the said 
superintendent, supervisors, principals and teachers, made charge- 
able to the fimds appropriated by the city of Rochester for the 
board of education for the maintenance of the department of edu- 
cation, which sum the said comptroller shall also deposit with the 
city treasurer, who shall retain the same subject to the disposal 
of said board of trustees as hereinafter provided. 

Subdiv. 4 The city comptroller shall be the custodian of said 
ftmd, and the city treasurer shall be the treasurer thereof; and all 
orders made payable from this fund shall be made upon the vote 
of the said board of trustees, said orders to be signed by its presi- 
dent and coimtersigned by the^city comptroller and the city treas- 
urer. 

Subdiv. 5 a The board of education shall have power, on recom- 
mendation of the superintendent of schools, to retire from service 
or refuse to reappoint to service, any supervisor, principal, or teacher 
who shall have served in such capacity or capacities -for an aggre- 
gate period of 20 years, if a female, and 25 years, if a male; and any 
person so retired or refused reappointment, shall become an annui- 
tant under this act, provided that not less than 15 years of such 
service shall have been rendered in the public schools of Rochester, 
and in case of any superintendent or supervisor, provided also that 
he or she shall have come under the provisions of this act in the 
manner hereinbefore mentioned. 

b Any superintendent, supervisor, principal_^ or teacher who 
shall have served in such capacity or capacities for a period of 30 
years, if a female, or 35 years, if a male, may with the consent of 
the board of education , retire from service and become an annui- 
tant imder this act, provided that not less than 15 years of such 
service, shall have been performed in the public schools of the city 
of Rochester, and in case of any superintendent or supervisor, provid- 
ed also that he or she shall have come under the provisions of this 
act in the manner hereinbefore mentioned. 

Subdiv. 6 Annuities paid in pursuance of this act shall be one 
half the amoimt of the annual salary of the annuitant at the time 
of retirement from service, except that no annuity shall exceed 
$800 annually; but if the moneys at the disposal of the trustees 
of said fimd be found at any time inadequate to fully carry out the 
provisions hereinabove mentioned, the trustees shall then pay to 
the persons entitled to participate in said fund as near a pro rata 
amount as in their judgment the circumstances will warrant. 



GENERAL LAWS AND SPECIAL ACTS 201 

Subdiv. 7 No person shall become an annuitant who has not 
contributed to the teachers' retirement fund in pursuance of sub- 
division 3 of this act, an amount equal to at least 40% of his 
or her annual salary at the time of retirement ; but any such person 
otherwise qualified miay become an annuitant by making a cash 
payment to the retirement fund before receiving any annuity, of 
such an amount as his or her contributions under said subdivision 
3 may have fallen short of the required 40%. 

Subdiv. 8 No annuity shall be paid from the teachers' retire- 
ment fund before July i, 1907, but any person duly qualified who 
shall retire or be retired from service before that time, and after 
this act shall take effect, shall not be deemed to have forfeited the 
right to become an annuitant under the provision of this act. 

Subdiv. 9 If at any time a superintendent, supervisor, principal, 
or teacher, who shall be willing to continue service in the public 
schools of Rochester, shall not be reemployed, or shall be discharged 
before the time when he or she would under the provisions of this 
act be entitled to an annuity, then such person shall be paid back, 
without interest, all the money which may have been deducted 
from his or her salary in pursuance of this act. 

Subdiv. 10 The board of education shall include in its annual 
report a full account of the condition of the teachers' retirement 
fund, its amoimt, the manner of its investment, and all receipts 
and disbursements on accotmt of said fimd during the year. 

§2 This act shall take effect Sep. i, 1905. 



Saloon not to be maintained near schoolhouse etc. 
CHAPTER 29 OF THE GENERAL LAWS 

Liquor tax law 

§ 24 Place in which traffic in liquor shall not be permitted. Traffic 
in liquors shall not be permitted: 

2 Under the provisions of subdivision i of section n of this act, 
in any building, yard, booth or other place which shall be on the 
same street or avenue or within 200 feet of a building occupied 
exclusively as a church or schoolhouse; the measurements to be 
taken in a straight line from the center of the nearest entrance of 
the building used for such church or school to the center of the 
nearest entrance of the place in which such liquor traffic is desired 



202 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

to be carried on ; provided, however, that this prohibition shall not 
apply to a place which on the 23d day of March, 1896, was lawfully 
occupied for a hotel, nor to a place in which such traffic in liquors 
was actually lawfully carried on at that date, nor to a place which 
at such date was occupied, or was in process of construction, by a 
corporation or association which traffics in liquors solely with the 
members thereof, nor to a place within such limit to which a cor- 
poration or association trafficking in liquors solely with the mem- 
bers thereof at such date may remove; but none of the exemp- 
tions under subdivision 2 of this section shall apply to subdivision 
1 of this section; nor . . . 

18 Misc. 346; 23 id. 468; 31 id. 569; 40 N. Y. Supp. 1107; 25 App. Div. 
428, 431; 27 id. 564, 570; 34 id. 390; 47 id. iii 



INDEX 



Academic departments, academies 
changed to, 85-86; apportionment, 
84 ; established by board of educa- 
tion, 80; state payment of tuition 
of nonresident pupils, 188; quali- 
fications for entrance, to be estab- 
lished by Regents, 85; visitation 
by Regents, 85. 

Academies, academic departments 
may be adopted, 85-86; leased by 
union school district, 85; returned 
to trustees in dissolved union 
school districts, 88; teachers train- 
ing classes in, 95. 

Acquisition of schoolhouse sites, 9:)- 

Actions, county judge to compel dis- 
trict to levy tax for costs, 103, 
104-5 ; district pays expense of, 
3 7 ; expense of serving notice for 
formation of union free schools, 
67; supervisors sue for fines and 
penalties, 22—23; by and against 
school district officers, 103 ; by and 
against trustees of school districts, 
156-57; supervisors compel trus- 
tees to replace lost code, 106; 
supervisors sue for money due 
from school officers, 32. 

Acts repealed, 90, 126—29. 

Affidavits, district clerk may take to 
register, 55; of expense of insti- 
tute, school commissioner to make, 
92 ; school commissioner may take, 
28; Superintendent may take, 11; 
teachers, to correctness of register, 
55- 

Age, qualifications for teachers, 28, 
48; at which students are eligible 
to compete for Cornell scholarships, 
97. See also School age. 

Aggregate attendance, see Attend- 
ance. 

American'^Museum of Natural His- 
tory, 162. 



Annual meetings, see School meet- 
ings. 

Annulment of certificates, for failure 
to complete agreement, 51; for 
failure of teacher to attend insti- 
tute, 93-94; by school commis- 
sioners, 28; by Superintendent, 10; 
Superintendent to note annulments 
of all certificates and diplomas, 
II. 

Apparatus, board of education to 
provide, 79,80; insurance, 79; re- 
pairs, 54; tax for, 37 ; trustees may 
purchase, 54. 

Appeals, copies of, evidence, 102; 
costs in certain cases when tried 
in courts, 103; decisions in, final 
by Superintendent , 89 , i o i ; from 
action of meeting dissolving union 
school district, 31, 89; from va- 
lidity of election, etc., in district 
over 300, 41; laws concerning, 
1 01— 2; rules of practice under, 
133-38; school commissioner may 
take testimony, 29 ; from acts of 
school commissioners, 29; Super- 
intendent's power concerning, lOI- 
2 ; Superintendent to keep record 
of, 102; who may appeal to Su- 
perintendent, 10 1. See also De- 
cisions. 

Apportioning valuation of railroads, 
telegraph, telephone and pipe- 
line companies, 147. 

Apportionment, see School moneys. 

Appropriations, 5 ; Arbor day, 117; 
education fund, 195-96; Indian 
schools, 114; institutes and sum- 
mer institutes, 94; training classes, 
95. See also School moneys. 

Arbor day, 116-17. 

Assessments, 58-66; banks, 142; 
equalized, to be used thereafter, 
59 ; of lands in forest preserve, 140 ; 
lands lying in one body, 58; pro- 



204 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



cedure when supervisors can not 
agree on equalization, 59; prop- 
erty exempt from, 149-52; rail- 
roads, 147; manner of reducing, 
59; by supervisors, equalization 
of, 59 ; telegraph, telephone and 
pipelines, 147; valuation of prop- 
erty to be taken from last assess- 
ment roll of town, 58-59. See 
also Taxes. 

Attendance apportionment accord- 
ing to, 16—17; how ascertained for 
purpose of apportioning public 
money, 17; institute week, how 
reckoned, 93 ; record of, to be kept 
by teachers, 49; report of, by trus- 

• tee, 57. 

Attendance officers, appointment 
of, under compulsory education 
law, 123, 193; may arrest truants, 
124; procedure on arrest of tru- 
ants, 124. 

Ballot boxes, in common districts, 
36; in districts of over 300, 40, 77- 
78. 

Ballots, in common districts, form of, 
36; in districts of over 300, 40, 78. 

Banks, school savings, 176-77. 

Banks and banking associations, tax- 
ation of stockholders in, 58, 142. 

Bequests, see Gifts. 

Blackboards, district to vote tax 
for, 37. 

Blanks, State Superintendent to pre- 
pare, II. 

Blind, institutions for, 11 5-16. 

Board of education, to establish aca- 
demic departments, 80; moneys 
from literature fund applied to 
academic department, 84; lease of 
academies, 85; to regulate admis- 
sion of pupils, 79; appointment of 
officers, 70; shall not exceed ap- 
propriation, 84; to provide ballot 
boxes, 7 7-7 8; bodies corporate, 
70; statement concerning bonded 
indebtedness, 73; bonds to be re- 
quired of collector and treasurer, 
7 1 ; shall give notice of time and 



sale of bonds, 73, 75; may borrow 
motley, 74-75, 82; to adopt by- 
laws, 79; canvass of votes, 78; 
clerk, 70, 71; colored schools es- 
tablished by, II 2-1 3, 185; no 
member to be interested in con- 
tracts, 83 ; contracts with school 
districts, 106-7; to prescribe 
course of study, 79; dissolution of 
union school districts by, 88 ; cop- 
ies of proceedings of dissolved 
union districts to be filed with 
State Superintendent, 89; divi- 
sion into classes, 68; drafts to be 
signed by president and secretary, 
84, 85 ; free instruction in drawing, 
no; subject to all duties of com- 
mon school district not inconsis- 
tent with this title, 82 ; election, 
68, 75-78; election of in cities and 
villages, 69; election in districts 
of over 300, 76-77; notice of elec- 
tion, 77, election disputes, 78; 
election of president, 70; to call 
special election, 78; may establish 
evening school, no; statement to 
corporate authorities of antici- 
pated expenditures, 72; estimate 
of expenses to be made at annual 
meeting, 83 ; to amend estimate if 
necessary, 83 ; duties under fire 
drill law, 186; to provide fire es- 
capes, 82; to provide school with 
flag, 177-78; to provide fuel, 80; 
to apply proceeds of gifts etc. , 80 ; 
to hold property when transferred 
by gift, etc., 80; to hire rooms, 79; 
same immunities and privileges as 
trustees of academies, 82 ; may 
establish industrial training de- 
partments, in; to act as inspec- 
tors of elections, 77; to close 
schools during institute, 92-93; 
public money may be withheld if 
board fails to close school during 
institute, 93; may establish kin- 
dergartens, in; to appoint libra- 
rians, 80; meetings, 75, 76, 84; 
only one member of family eligible 
to membership in, 72; moneys 



INDEX 



205 



paid to treasurer for use of, 85 ; 
to pay moneys only upon resolu- 
tion, 84, 85; moneys apportioned 
to common schools, how applied, 
84; number restricted, 87; num- 
ber, how increased and diminished, 
69-70, 87 ; to provide for instruc- 
tion in physiology and hygiene, 
79; powers and duties, 79-86; 
proceedings open for public in- 
spection, 83 ; qualifications of 
members, 71-72; to exchange real 
estate, 80; to sell real estate when 
authorized by vote of district, 80; 
proceeds of sale of real estate, how 
applied, 80; to execute or have 
sale of real estate, 80; statement 
of receipts and expenditures to be 
published, 83; to copy record of 
proceedings, 83 ; removal of mem- 
bers for cause, 81 ; reports, 86; to 
establish rules relative to dis- 
cipline, 79 ; to have charge and 
disposition of school property, 80; 
to keep schoolhouses and furniture 
in repair, 79 ; to keep schoolhouses 
and furniture insured, 79 ; to pur- 
chase sites and schoolhouses, 79; 
designation of schoolhouse sites 
without vote, 82 ; to have full 
management and control of 
schools, 80; may hold executive 
session meetings, 84; powers as in 
title 9 under special laws, 91 ; to 
appoint superintendent of schools, 
82 ; to prescribe salaries and duties 
of superintendent of schools, 83 ; 
general supervision by Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, 86; 
tax for teachers' wages, 75; when 
board may levy tax without vote, 
83-84; to employ teachers, 80-81 ; 
to pay teachers' salaries monthly, 
81; contracts of employment to 
be delivered to teachers, 81; rela- 
tives can not be employed as 
teachers without two thirds vote, 
8 1 ; can not remove teacher except 
for cause, 81; term of office, 68, 
87; term of office in cities and 



villages, 69; to hold until suc- 
cessors are elected, 78; to pre- 
scribe textbooks, 79, 105; may 
purchase free textbooks, 76; may 
establish rules and regulations 
concerning free textbooks, 76; 
manner of changing textbooks in 
union schools, 105; title of prop- 
erty invested in, 80 ; to give notice 
of action changing number of trus- 
tees, 87 ; powers of trustees under 
title 9 in city of Brooklyn, 91; 
powers of trustees in cities of not 
more than 30,000, 91; to regulate 
tuition for nonresident pupils, 80; 
vacancies in office of clerk, treas- 
urer, collector, to be filled by, 71; 
vacancy in board, how filled, 81; 
may appoint competent physician 
to vaccinate children, 139; to ap- 
point visitation committee, 84; to 
provide free instruction in vocal 
music, iii; to provide water- 
closets, 81. See also Union school 
districts. 

Boards of supervisors, see Super- 
visors. 

Bond, collector, 63, 66; supervisor to 
give, 18; extra surety required in 
cities and villages, 84; treasurer 
and collector to give, 47, 71; 
treasurer's and collector's, amount 
fixed by district, 37. 

Bond and mortgage, sale of site to be 
taken as security for, 43. 

Bonded indebtedness, districts hav- 
ing, not to be divided, 31, 87. 

Bonds, issue of, 43, 73, 75; notice of 
sale of, 43, 73; payment of pro- 
ceeds of sale, 47, 73; statement 
concerning to be filed with clerk 
of board of supervisors, 43, 75. • 

Bookcase, district to vote tax for, 
37. 

Canvass of votes in districts of over 
300, 78. 

Census, biennial school, 180-81 ; 
expense of, 12-13; whom to in- 
clude, 57; Indian children, 114; 



206 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Superintendent to determine 
whether district is entitled to 
employ a superintendent, 12-13,82 ; 
Superintendent to determine when 
not shown, 14; to be reported by 
trustee, 57; when taken, 57. 

Certificate of apportionment of pub- 
lic moneys, 17. 

Certificates, see Annulment of cer- 
tificates; College graduate certifi- 
cates; Normal school diplomas; 
State certificates; Teachers' cer- 
tificates. 

Challenges, declaration of person 
challenged, 35, 40, 77; illegal vot- 
ing in common school districts, 35 ; 
illegal voting in districts of over 
300, 40, 77. 

Chief clerk in Department of Public 
Instruction may be appointed sec- 
ond deputy, 181. 

Children, employment under com- 
pulsory education law, 122-23 ; em- 
ployment in street trades prohibit- 
ed, 174. See also Pupils; School 
age. 

Cities, apportionment to, 14; appor- 
tionment for superintendent, 12; 
when entitled to additional appor- 
tionment, 13; districts can not be 
annexed to, 31; special provisions 
for districts over 300 do not apply 
to, 41; election of board of educa- 
tion in union school corresponding 
with cities, 69 ; moneys raised in, to 
be paid into treasury, 84; tax for 
school purposes levied in, 72; term 
of office of board of education in 
union school corresponding with 
cities, 69. 

City and village superintendents, ap- 
portionment of public money for, 
12, 13; board of education may 
appoint, remove, fix salaries and 
duties, 82-83 ; to have general over- 
sight of Arbor day exercises, 117; 
to assist in holding Cornell scholar- 
ship examinations, 97 ; districts em- 
ploying entitled to benefits pro- 
vided in section 2, 83. 



City treasurer, public money certi- 
fied to, 15. 

City treasurer or chamberlain shall 
apply for public money, 15. 

Clerk, see District clerk. 

Code of public instruction, trustee to 
care for and replace if lost, 105-6; 
penalty against trustee for neglect 
to care for, 106; printing and dis- 
tribution, 117. 

Collection of taxes, see Taxes. 

Collector, appointment in union 
school districts, 70; appointment 
to be filed with district clerk, 46; 
to give bond, 63, 71; bond to be 
filed with town clerk, 63; expense 
of filing bond a district charge, 63 ; 
amount of bond, 37; recovery of 
moneys on bonds, 66 ; vacates office 
by failure to give bond, 45, 71; 
custodian of moneys, 65 ; to dis- 
burse public money, 63 ; not to dis- 
burse public money in districts 
having treasurer, 63; manner of 
election, 36; trustee not eligible to 
office of, 44; fees, 64; to make up 
loss of moneys, 65 ; to give notice of 
collection of taxes, 63-64; to notify 
nonresidents, 64; to notify presi- 
dent, etc., of canal and pipelines, 
64; to notify ticket agent of rail- 
road corporation, 64; payment of 
moneys to successor, 65; payment 
of moneys to treasurer, 65 ; report 
of receipts and disbursements of 
moneys, 65 ; to receive money from 
supervisor, 2 2 ; to certify to trus- 
tee taxes not collectible, 61 ; to pay 
taxes returned to county treasurer, 
61 ; term of office, 44 ; to pay money 
over to treasurer, 47 ; trustee to 
notify treasurer and State Super- 
intendent of failure to pay money, 
55-56; vacancy, how supplied, 46, 
71; delivery of warrant to, 62. 

College graduate certificates. State 
Superintendent may grant and re- 
voke, 10. 
Colored children, schools for, 1 12-13; 
in New York city, 113; teachers 



INDEX 



207 



must be qualified, 113 ; equal rights 
for, 185. 

Commissioner of Education, election, 
4; powers, 5; powers of Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction and 
Secretary of Regents to be exer- 
cised by, 5 ; to appoint assistants 
under compulsory education law, 
126; to apportion education fund, 
196; to distribute library moneys, 
183; to approve plans of school- 
houses, 41-42 ; salary and expenses, 
4; successors in office, term of, 4; 
term of office, 4; vacancy in office, 
how filled, 4; may withhold public 
money for failure to comply with 
compulsory education law, 126. 
For other powers, see Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction. 

Common school fund, 12, 195. 

Common schools, inspectors, 9 ; State 
Superintendent to visit, 9. See 
also School districts. 

Common schools, meetings in, see 
School meetings. 

Compensation, see Salary. 

Comptroller, may withhold payment 
of moneys to counties, 11-12; 
duties relating to education fund, 
196. 

Compulsory education, subjects to 
be taught under, 120; Indian chil- 
dren on reservations, 190-94; law, 
full text of, 120-26. 

Condemnation, schoolhouse by school 
commissioner, 27; proceedings for 
acquiring site, 90. 

Contingent fund, established, 13; 
supplementary apportionment to 
be paid from, 15; money from 
to be paid separate neighborhoods, 
119. 

Contracts, between board of educa- 
tion and teachers, 81, 107; with 
other cities and districts under 
compulsory education law, 125; 
conveying pupils, 38—39 ; misde- 
meanor for trustee or member of 
board of education to be inter- 
ested in, 83, 1S9; with private 



institutions under compulsory edu- 
cation law, 125; between school 
districts for education of pupils, 
106-7 ; copy filed with State Super- 
intendent for education of pupils, 
106; reports of trustees and 
boards concerning districts under, 
107; for tuition, districts making 
to receive quota, 106. 

Conveyance of pupils, 38-39. 

Copies of records etc., under seal, 
evidence, 9, 102. 

Cornell University, State Superin- 
tendent a trustee of, 9; state 
scholarships in, 96-99. 

Corporal punishment, see Discipline. 

Corporate authorities, to raise sums 
voted at special meetings for alter- 
ations, improvements etc., 72; 
board of education in cities and 
villages to certify anticipated 
expenditures to, 72 ; must levy tax 
as certified, 72; may levy tax in 
one sum or by instalments, 72; 
have no power to withhold sums 
certified, 72; power to borrow 
money, 73. 

Costs of actions against school offi- 
cers, 103. 

Counties, apportionment to, 13, 14. 

County clerk, public money certi- 
fied to, iS; to give notice of va- 
cancy in office of school commis- 
sioner, 25; to forward to State 
Superintendent certificate of elec- 
tion of school commissioners, 25; 
to file oath of office of school com- 
missioner, 25; school commis- 
sioner to file trustees' reports and 
commissioners' abstracts with, 29. 

County judge, may appoint person 
to distribute public money, 18; 
to determine amount of costs in 
certain cases, 103; to hear and 
determine appeal on refusal of 
district to vote tax for costs, 103-5 ; 
may impose penalty, 29; may fill 
vacancy in office of school com- 
missioner, 25. 



208 



NEW. YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



County treasurer, to be furnished 
with certificate of apportionment, 
17; to credit fines and penalties 
to school moneys, 20; shall add 
unappropriated library money to 
succeeding year, 99; shall apply 
for public money, iS; public 
money certified to, 15; to furnish 
school commissioners with amount 
reported by supervisors, 16; to 
furnish school commissioners with 
amount of fines and penalties, 16; 
to sue bond of supervisor, 18; 
shall require bond of supervisor, 
18; to pay amount of uncollected 
taxes to collector, 61. 

Ilourse of study, trustees to pre- 
scribe in common schools, 52; 
board of education to prescribe 
in union schools, 79. 

Deaf and dumb, institutions for, 

115-16. 
Decisions of State Superintendent, 

public money may be withheld 

for disobedience of, 11; final, 89, 

10 1. See also Appeals. 
Declaration of voters, see Voters. 
Deficiency, district to vote tax for, 

37. 

Deputy superintendent, appoint- 
ment and salary, 8; to act in case 
of vacancy in office of State Su- 
perintendent, 8-9; chief clerk may 
be appointed second deputy, 181. 

Diplomas, indorsement by Superin- 
tendent, 10. 

Discipline, trustees to prescribe rules 
for in common schools, 52; board 
of education to prescribe rules for 
in union schools, 79; corporal 
punishment, when permitted, 158. 

Disorderly persons, truants pro- 
ceeded against as, 125. 

Dissolution of school districts, in 
common school districts, by com- 
missioners, 31; common school 
districts adjoining union school 
districts, 88; union school dis- 
tricts, method of procedure, 86-87. 



District attorney shall report fines 
and penalties to boards of super- 
visors, 20. 

District clerk, duties, 46-47 ; elec- 
tion, 36; election, section 7 of 
title 8 relating to not to apply to 
certain towns, 90; to call special 
election in districts of over 300, 
40-41 ; duties in election in dis- 
tricts of 300, 77; to notify per- 
sons elected or appointed to office, 
45 ; to record result of election as 
announced by inspectors in dis- 
tricts of 300, 78; to give notice 
of meeting, 34; to call special 
meeting when annual meeting is 
not held, 34; penalty for refusing 
to record names in districts of 
over 300, 40, 77; penalties for 
failure to preserve and deliver 
records, 47 ; penalties for failure 
to report officers elected to town 
clerk, 47 ; to keep poll list in dis- 
tricts of over 300, 40; removal 
from district, 33 ; duties in separ- 
ate neighborhoods, 118, 119; to 
administer oath to teachers, 55; 
teachers to deliver register to, 49; 
term of office, 44; trustee not 
eligible to office of, 44; trustees to 
file bond of treasurer with, 48; 
vacancy in office, how filled, 46; 
notice of appointment to fill va- 
cancy to be filed with, 46. 

District meetings, see School meet- 
ings. 

District officers, election, 35-36; elec- 
tion in districts over 300, 39; elec- 
tion disputes, how decided, 41 ; 
subject to fine for refusal to serve, 
46 ; subject to fine for wilful neglect 
of duty, 46; penalty for refusal to 
make report, 34; powers and 
duties, 33-36; proceedings when 
annual meeting not held, 34; 
qualifications, 44, 71-72; resigna- 
tions, 47; term of office, 41, 44; 
length of term when elected as 
special meeting, 34-35; vacancies 
in office, 45, 46. 



INDEX 



209 



District quotas, 13; districts en- 
tithd to, 13-14. 

District treasurer, how appointed in 
union school districts, 70 ; bond, 37, 
7 1 ; to receive proceeds of sale of 
bonds, 47 ; compensation in union 
schoCl districts, 70; to pay money 
only on drafts, 85; duties, 47-48; 
election, 36; eligibility, 36; pay- 
ment of moneys to, 47, 85; quali- 
fications, 70; to receive all money 
from supervisors in union schools, 
22 ; to be paid money for teachers' 
wages by supervisor, 2 2 ; term of 
office, 36, 44; trustee to notify 
treasurer and State vSuperintendent 
of failure to pay money, 55-56; 
trustee not eligible to office of, 44 ; 
vacates office by failure to give 
bond, 45, 71; vacancy in office of, 
how filled in union school districts, 
71; vacancy supplied by appoint- 
ment of trustee, 45, 46. 

Districts, excluded, allowance to, 14. 

Drawing, free instruction to be 
given, iio-ii; evening schools for 
instruction in, no. 

Education fund, 195-96. 

Educational qualifications, office in 
common school districts, 44; office 
in union school districts, 72. 

Employment of children, under com- 
pulsory education law, 122-23; i^ 
street trades prohibited, 174. 

Employment of teachers, see Teach- 
ers. 

Enumeration, see Census. 

Estimates, accounts and expendi- 
tures, by State Superintendent, 10; 
board to present estimate of ex- 
penditures to annual meeting, 83 ; 
evening schools for instruction in 
drawing, in. 

Evidence, copies of, seal evidence 
equal with original, g, 102. 

Examinations, in physiology and 
hygiene, 109; use of school build- 
ing for, 29; by school commis- 



sioners, 28; state certificates, 10; 
for state scholarships in Cornell 
University, 97. 

Executive sessions, board of educa- 
tion may hold, 84. 

Exemptions, clerk . in certain 
counties, in manner of election, 90; 
Brooklyn not exempt from provis- 
ions of title 9,91. 

Exemptions from taxation, 60, 80, 
140, 149-52; dwelling house and 
land owned by religious corpora- 
tions, 149; pay, bounty and pen- 
sion money of soldiers and sailors 
and real property purchased there- 
with, 152; real property of re- 
ligious, charitable and educational 
corporations, 149-50. 

Expenditures, vote on, 38. 

Fees, see Salary and fees. 

Fines and penalties, apportionment 
of, 16; when apportioned by State 
Superintendent, 20; refusal of 
clerk to record names of voters, 40, 
7 7 ; neglect of clerk to preserve 
records, 47 ; for violation of com- 
pulsory education law, 121, 123; 
for the benefit of counties, 20; dis- 
trict attorney to report, 20 ; refusal 
of district clerk to deposit records 
with town clerks, 32 ; for neglect of 
district clerk to report to town 
clerk officers elected, 47.; for failure 
of district officers to report, 34; for 
neglect or refusal of district officers 
to perform duties, 46 ; for refusal of 
district officers to serve, 46; draw- 
ing draft on supervisor in certain 
cases, 159; entering building un- 
lawfully, 159-60; altering or chang- 
ing entries, forgery in third degree, 
160; disobedience of fire drill law, 
186; failure of teacher to attend 
institute, 93-94; for failure to close 
school during institute, 93-94; in 
joint districts, 2 1 ; for wilful neglect 
or refusal to deliver books to libra- 
ries, 10 1 ; disturbing lawful meet- 
ings, 158; misappropriation etc. 



2IO 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



and falsification of accounts by 
public officers, 158-59; refusal to 
serve notice, 33 ; neglect of public 
officers, 158; neglect or refusal of 
officers to sue for, shall forfeit 
amount of, 102; attempting to 
prevent officers from doing duty, 
157; resisting officers, 157; refusal 
of officers to surrender to successor, 
1 5 7 ; to be paid to county treasurer, 
20; to whom paid, 29; violation of 
physiology law, 109; injury to 
records and misappropriation by 
ministerial officers, 158; to be re- 
ported to school commissioner, 
22-23; school commissioner to 
publish school books, sell furniture 
or receive gifts, 26 ; disobeying sub- 
poena of school commissioner, 29; 
sued for by supervisor, 22-23, suits 
for, 103 ; making false statements in 
reference to taxes, 159; violating 
textbook law, 105; trustees for 
paying unqualified teacher, 49; 
trustees for issuing order when no 
money is in collector's hands, 52, 
5 3 ; neglect or refusal of trustee to 
account, 56; for failure of trustees 
to care for code, 106 ; trustees inter- 
ested in contracts, 159; illegal vot- 
ing, 35-36, 40, 77; failure of dis- 
trict and trustee to provide water- 

, closets, 53, 81-82. 

Fire drills, laws requiring, 185-86. 

Fire escapes, trustees and boards of 
education to provide, 53-54, 82. 

Fires, trustees to provide for build- 
ing, 54- 

Flag to be displayed on school 
grounds, 177-78. 

Forest preserve, assessment and tax- 
ation of land in, 140. 

Fuel, district to furnish, 37; board 
of education to provide, 80. 

Furniture, district to furnish, 37; to 

. be kept insured, 37, 79; board of 
education to provide, 80. 

Gifts, 18-19; acceptance by state of 
bonds, warrants etc., from other 



states, 189; board may hold for 
use of districts, 80; not invalid for 
want of competent trustee, 19; 
Legislature to control exclusively, 
19; to libraries, 100; to libraries 
and other educational institutions, 
190 ; local boards of normal schools 
may hold, 173; real and personal 
estate for use of common schools, 
18-19; State Superintendent to 
supervise, 19; trustees to render 
accounting to State Superintend- 
ent, 19. 

Globes, district to vote tax for, 37; 
trustees may purchase, 54. 

Gospel and school lots, supervisor to 
report to State Superintendent, 
19-20; State Superintendent to 
report in regard to, 20; super- 
visors made trustees of, 21; sold 
under certain conditions, 179. 

Gospel fund to be apportioned by 
supervisors, 179. 

Graduates of normal schools, see 
Normal school diplomas. 

Grants, see Library moneys; School 
moneys. 

Health and decency acts, 53, 81. 

High school, see Academic depart- 
ments. 

Holidays, part of school term, 13; 
defined, 155; anniversary day in 
Brooklyn schools, 156. 

Incorporated villages, see Villages. 

Indebtedness, see Bonded indebted- 
ness. 

Indians, not admitted to common 
schools, 48; appropriation of pub- 
lic money for, 13, 114; not in- 
cluded in census, 57; enumeration 
of children to be taken, 114; ex- 
penditures, vouchers and receipts 
to be filed with State Superintend- 
ent, 114; protection to title of 
land, 114; may be appointed to 
normal schools, 172-73; on res- 
ervations, compulsory education 
of, 190-94; State Superintendent 



INDEX 



211 



to provide for education of, 9; 
State Superintendent to employ 
superintendent of Indian schools, 
113; State Superintendent to re- 
quire reports of superintendents 
of Indian schools, 114; State 
Superintendent to report concern- 
ing, 114. 

Indorsement of diplomas and state 
certificates, 10. 

Industrial training, 111-12; in tru- 
ant schools, 125. 

Inspection of schools, by school com- 
missioner, 27; by State Superin- 
tendent, 9, 86; by boards of edu- 
cation, 84. 

Inspectors, common school. State 
Superintendent may appoint, 9; 
compulsory education law, 126; 
training class, 96. 

Inspectors of election, common 
school district, 36; district of 
over 300, 39, 77; canvass vote, 78. 

Institute conductors. State Super- 
intendent to appoint, 91. 

Institutes, see Summer institute; 
Teachers institutes. 

Insurance, board of education to 
insure schoolhouse, apparatus etc., 
79; of library, 51; normal school 
property, 171-72, 174; trustee to 
insure school property, 37, 50-51 

Janitor, trustee to provide, 54. 
Joint districts, see School districts. 
Judge, see County judge. 
Judgment for teachers' wages, how 
satisfied, 38. 

Kindergartens, free, in; pupils en- 
titled to share in public money, i7_ 

Labor law, act amending, 174-75. 

Lanterns and slides for visual instruc- 
tion, 161-63. 

Laws repealed, 126-29. 

Librarian, board of education to 
appoint, 80 ; report when required, 
100; shall be responsible for safety 



and proper care of books, 100; 
teacher to be, 100; trustee not 
eligible, 44. 

Libraries, school: pubHc libraries 
may take books of district libraries, 
100; persons having books in pos- 
session to deliver them to proper 
authorities, 100; penalty for re- 
fusal to deliver books, loi; when 
board of education may retain 
dictionaries etc., 100; gifts may 
be received for, 100, 190; inspec- 
tion by school commissioner, 27; 
insurance, 51, 79; law, all existing 
provisions applicable, 100; release 
of school authorities concerning, 
100; required books, 99 ; rules for 
management, 100; shall not be 
used as a public circulating library, 
99; public not entitled to use of 
school library, 10 1; to be kept in 
school building, 99; state teachers 
library, 181-82; board of educa- 
tion may transfer to free public 
library, 100, loi. 

Library moneys, acts relating to, 
181-83; apportionment, 13, 16, 
99, 183; requirements for share 
in apportionment, 99 ; apportioned 
by school commissioner, 16; ex- 
penditure, 99; gifts may be re- 
ceived for, 100; to be paid by 
supervisor, 2 2 ; set apart by 
school commissioners, 16; tax for 
raising, 37, 100; disposition of 
unapportioned moneys, 99; may 
be withheld from district or city 
using library money for other pur- 
poses, lOI. 

Liquors, not to be sold near school- 
house, 201-2. 

Literature fund, 84, 19 5. 

Loans, charge upon counties, 12; 
State Superintendent and State 
Treasurer may borrow money 
when counties fail to pay, 12. 

Manual training in the public schools, 



212 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Maps, district to vote tax for, 37. 
Meetings, see School meetings. 
Moneys, see Library moneys; School 
moneys. 

Natural history, free instruction in, 
161-63. 

New York city, considered one 
county, 13. 

New York State Asylum for Idiots, 
State Superintendent a trustee, 9. 

Nonresidents, may be admitted to 
common schools, 48; may be ad- 
mitted to union schools, 80; 
tuition fees, 80; state payment of 
tuition in academic departments, 
188. 

Normal school diplomas, annulment 
of, lo-ii, 28; issue of, 169; qualify 
to teach, 48, 169; from other 
states. State Superintendent may 
indorse, 10; State Superintend- 
ent to keep list of, 11. 

Normal schools, acts relating to, 
164-70; custody and preservation 
of buildings, 170-71; shall give 
free instruction in drawing, no; 
appointment of Indians to, 172-73 ; 
industrial training in, 112; insur- 
ance of property, 171-72, 174; 
local boards to accept money 
etc. for benefit of, 173; af&davit 
of principal concerning in- 
struction in physiology and 
hygiene, 109-10; conditions of 
paying public money to, 109; 
supervision by State Superin- 
tendent, 9; use of tuition 
money, 173; free instruction in 
vocal music, in. 

Oath of office of school commis- 
sioner, 25. 
Oaths, see Affidavits. 
Orphan schools, 113. 

Penal code, extracts from, 157-60. 
Penalties, see Fines and penalties. 



Pensions, for teachers who have 
taught 25 years, 196-98; in 
Rochester, 198-201. 

Physiology and hygiene, instruction 
in, 52, 79; law, 107-10; to be 
taught in normal schools, teachers 
training classes and teachers in- 
stitutes, 109; teachers to be ex- 
amined in, 28, 109. 

Pictorial instruction, 161-63. 

Poll list, to be kept in coni'mon school 
districts, 36, 40, 77; voters must 
correspond in number with, 78. 

President of board of education, elec- 
tion of, 70. 

Property, conveyance of, 190. See 
also Gifts; Trustees. 

Public health law, 139-40. 

Public Instruction, Superintendent 
of, see Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. 

Public libraries, formed from school 
libraries, 100, loi; conveyance of 
property to, 190. 

Public moneys, see Library moneys; 
School moneys. 

Pupils, 48-49 ; board of education to 
regulate admission, 79; school fees 
to, 48. See also Nonresidents. 

Qualifications of voters, in school 
districts, 35, 71; to be included in 
call for organizing union school, 
66. 

Railroad companies, collection of 
taxes, 147-48. 

Railroads, apportioning valuation 
of, 147. 

Receipts countersigned by Comp- 
troller, 196. 

Record book, tax for, 37. 

Regents, election, 3-4; no ex officio 
members, 3 ; number, 3 ; to give 
permission to collect books, etc., 
100; powers, 5; to regulate and 
visit academic departments, 85; to 
accept school libraries from boards 
of education for free public library, 



INDEX 



213 



100; office of Secretary abolished, 
5 ; Superintendent a Regent ex 
officio, 9; term of office, 4; vacan- 
cies in office, 4. 

Registers, see School registers. 

Removal of officers, school commis- 
sioner or other school officer re- 
movable by Superintendent, 1 1 ; 
member of board of education re- 
movable by board, 81 ; member of 
board of education removable by 
Superintendent, 86. 

Reports, board of education, 86; 
concerning districts under con- 
tract, 107 ; regarding gospel and 
school lots, 19—20; licenses an- 
nulled by school commissioner, 
28; school commissioner to Super- 
intendent, 29; annual report of 
Superintendent, 9-10; Superin- 
tendent to prepare blanks, forms, 
etc., for, 11; required by Super- 
intendent, 11; regarding money in 
hands of superintendent of poor, 
20; supervisor to report balance 
of sale to school commissioner, 32; 
treasurer, 48, 85; trustees, 56, 84; 
trusts reported to Superintendent, 
19 ; visiting committee of board of 
education, 84. 

Resignation of district officers, 47. 

Revocation of certificates, see Annul- 
ment of certificates. 

Rochester, pensioning retired teach- 
ers, 198-201. 

St Lawrence county, act to provide 
for uniform tax in, 152-55. 

Salary and fees, city and village su- 
perintendents, 83; collector, 64; 
Commissioner of Education, 4; 
deputy superintendent , 8 ; em- 
ployees, 9 ; inspectors of common 
schools, 9; assistant inspectors 
under compulsory education law, 
126; school commissioner, 12, 25; 
State Superintendent, 8; issuing 
subpoena, 29; supervisors, 175-76; 
supervisor and town clerk in cases 
of district alterations, 31; super- 



visor for equalizing assessments, 
59; expenses of town clerk, 24; 
town clerk for filing collector's 
bond, 63; compensation of treas- 
urer in union school districts, 70. 

Saloon not to be maintained near 
schoolhouse, 201-2. 

Savings banks, school, 176-77. 

Scholarships in Cornell University, 
96-99. 

School age, apportioning public 
money, 17; census, 57; enforce- 
ment of compulsory education 
law, 120-21, 191; Indian children, 
114; kindergarten pupils, 17; li- 
censing teachers, 28, 48; free 
tuition, 48. 

School apparatus, see Apparatus. 

School commissioner districts, 24; 
cities not included in, 24; divided 
and changed, 24; divided by board 
of supervisors, 160. 

School commissioners, may act for 
another, 26; acts may be appealed 
from, loi ; may take affidavits, 28 ; 
may annul certificates and report 
to Superintendent, 28; apportion 
pubHc money, 15-18; appor- 
tion money collected by super- 
visor, 32; to have general over- 
sight of Arbor day exercises, 117; 
to fill vacancies in boards of edu- 
cation, 81; to inquire into school 
district boundaries, 26 ; alter boun- 
daries of union free school dis- 
tricts, 31 ; correct defective records 
of boundaries, 26; to state amount 
necessary for new building, 27; 
may require use of school build- 
ings, 29 ; public money certified to, 
1 5 ; may require attendance of 
other commissioners, 31; to hold 
Cornell scholarship examination, 
97; may order district clerk to 
deposit records with town clerk, 
3 2 ; may accept resignation of dis- 
trict officers, 46 ; duties as to school 
districts, 30-31, 69; full authority 
given in districts under special acts, 
33 ; consolidation of districts, 31-32 ; 



214 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



may dissolve school districts, 31, 
87; divide dissolved districts into 
original districts, 88; approve pro- 
ceedings for dissolving union school 
districts, 88 ; may make approval of 
dissolution conditional, 89 ; division 
of school districts, 30, 187; elec- 
tion, 24-29; certificate of election 
to be forwarded Superintendent 
by county clerk, 25; may call 
special election in districts of over 
300, 41, 78; eligibility, 24; expenses 
paid by board of supervisors, 26; 
may direct repairs to school fur- 
niture, 27; expenditures for re- 
pairs, 27 ; may direct new furniture 
to be bought, 27 ; expenditures for 
new furniture, 27; not to receive 
gift for influence, 26; may receive 
gifts for use of common schools, 19 ; 
inspection of schools, 27; duties 
relative to institutes, 92; right to 
hold institute in school building, 
9 2 ; payment of expense for insti- 
tute, 94; to carry unapportioned 
library money to succeeding year, 
99 ; to make good losses of moneys, 
102 ; to give notice of first meeting, 
33; to give notice of special meet- 
ing, 33; to give notice of meeting 
before time is fixed, ^^ ; may call 
special meeting when annual meet- 
ing is not held, 3 4 ; minutes of meet- 
ing organizing union school to be 
filed with, 69; office continued, 24; 
to certify to provisions of physiol- 
ogy law, 109; powers and duties, 
24-29; removed by Superintend- 
ent, 1 1 ; may remove attendance 
officers, 123 ; resignation and vacat- 
ing office, 25; to report to Super- 
intendent, 29; to file abstracts and 
reports with county clerk, 29 ; rules 
and regulations for, 29; salary, 
12, 25; salary withheld by Super- 
intendent, 26; not to be interested 
in publishing school books or selling 
school furniture ,26; may condemn 
schoolhouse , 2 7 ; to file with Super- 
intendent copy condemning school- 



house, 27; approve plans for ven- 
tilation, etc., of schoolhouses in 
union districts, 79; set off separate 
neighborhoods, it8; to give con- 
sent to change of site, 43 ; power to 
issue subpoenas, 29 ; to obtain from 
treasurer report of supervisors 
relative to money on hand, 21 ; may 
examine teachers and grant cer- 
tificates, 28, 33; examine charges 
against teachers, 28; may make 
recommendations to teachers and 
trustees, 27; Superintendent may 
revoke licenses issued by, 10; term 
and oath of office, 25; to take 
testimony in case of appeal, 29; 
to file duplicate order with town 
clerk, 32; duties relative to train- 
ing classes, 96 ; not eligible to office 
of trustee, 44; may direct trustees 
to abate nuisance, 27 ; may appoint 
trustee to fill vacancy, 45 ; direct 
trustees to make alterations and 
repairs, 27; to procure trustees, 
reports from town clerks, 29; 
vacancy in office, how filled, 25. 
School districts, alteration, 30-32; 
correcting boundaries or records 
a district charge, 26; may contract 
with adjoining districts for educa- 
tion of pupils, 106-7; entitled to 
quota when contracting for edu- 
cation of pupils, 106; description 
filed with town clerk, 30; dissolu- 
tion, 30-32; dissolution of common 
school districts adjoining union 
school districts, 3 1 , 86-87 ; may dis- 
solve and annex to union school 
districts when trustees consent, 86- 
87 ; portion of dissolved district 
may be annexed to existing dis- 
trict, 31-32; dissolved districts to 
exist for finishing business, 32; 
can not be divided when having 
bonded indebtedness, 31, 87; 
formed by school commissioner, 
30-33 ; formation, alteration and 
dissolution of joint districts, 31; 
meetings, 33-35; when not en- 
titled to moneys, 17; supervisor 



INDEX 



215 



to sue for money due, 3 2 ; organiza- 
tion of new districts, 33; rights of 
property when consolidated, 32; 
parted into portions, schoolhouses 
to be sold by supervisor, 32; pro- 
ceeds of sale to be apportioned 
among inhabitants, 32 ; under spe- 
cial acts not subject to provisions 
of districts of over 300, 41. See also 
District clerk ; District officers ; Dis- 
trict quotas; District treasurer; 
School meetings; Trustees. 

School law, care of, 105-6; printing 
and distribution, 117. 

School libraries, see Libraries. 

School meetings, acts may be ap- 
pealed from, 10 1 ; adjournment, 
36, 68; annual meeting may pre- 
scribe method of giving notice of 
special meeting, 34; date of hold- 
ing annual meeting, 34, 39; date 
of holding in districts of over 300, 
75, 76 ; vote on increase or diminu- 
tion of members of board of edu- 
cation, 87 ; amount of collectors' 
and treasurers' bonds fixed by, 37 ; 
chairman and clerk appointed by, 
36; to decide if district shall be 
dissolved or altered, 31; method 
of procedure to dissolve union 
school districts, 86-87; special 
meeting to dissolve union school 
districts, 88; held in dissolved dis- 
tricts, 32, 89; district treasurer to 
report to, 48; in districts of over 
300, 75-78; provisions concerning 
districts of over 300 not to apply 
to certain counties, 78; division 
of union school district, 186; in- 
surance of school property author- 
ized by, 37; raising of money by 
instalments determined, 42; school 
commissioner to give notice of new 
districts, ^^■, proceedings altered 
^y, 37; proceedings when annual 
meeting is not held, 34; powers as 

; to school commissioner's estimate 
etc., 28; in common school dis- 
tricts, powers of, 36-39; held in 
principal schoolhouse, 34, 39; de- 



termine material, size etc. of 
schoolhouse, 27-28; special meet- 
ing to consider building school- 
house, 27-28; designate school- 
house site at special meeting, 37; 
vote on change of site, 43 ; direct 
sale of former site and building, 
43 ; disposition of proceeds of sale 
of site directed by, 44; held in 
separate neighborhoods, 118; 
Superintendent may call special 
meeting, 34; designate textbooks, 
105; manner of changing text- 
books, 105; time of convening, 
33, 38; authorize district trustee 
to employ relative, 51; number of 
trustees determined by, 44; pro- 
ceedings for forming union school, 
67-68; 

elections: 76-77; ballot boxes 
in districts of over 300, 78; form 
of ballots in districts of over 300, 
78; canvass of votes and declara- 
tion of results in districts of over 
300, 78; challenge of voters in 
districts of over 300, 77; declara- 
tion of voters in districts of over 
300, 77; disputes concerning elec- 
tion, 78 ; hours for holding election 
in districts of over 300, 76-77; 
inspectors of election appointed 
by, 36 ; Superintendent may order 
new election in districts of over 
300, 78; notice of election in dis- 
tricts of over 300, 39, 77; officers 
elected by, 36; penalty for illegal 
voting in districts of over 300, 77; 
clerk keeps poll list in districts of 
over 300, 77; special election in 
districts of over 300, 78; school 
commissioner and Superintendent 
to order special election, 78 ; deter- 
mine whether a treasurer shall be 
elected, 36; 

vote on taxes: 38, 73; for pur- 
chase of apparatus etc., 37; for 
conveying pupils, 38-39; for 
defending suits, 37; for deficien- 
cies, 37; for fuel, 37; for hiring 
and purchasing rooms, buildings 



2l6 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



etc., 37; to satisfy judgment, 38; 
for library, 37; to replace moneys 
lost or embezzled, 37; when vote 
to levy tax may be reconsidered, 
42; for record book, 37; vote to 
raise money in union school dis- 
tricts, how rescinded, 74; for 
teachers' wages, 38; for purchase 
of textbooks for poor children, 37. 

School moneys, account thereof to 
be rendered annually by treasurer 
in union schools, 85; power to 
borrow money, 12, 74-75; state 
school moneys defined, 12; educa- 
tion fund, 195-96; vote on expendi- 
ture of, 74; forfeiture of by reason 
of neglect, 102; public money on 
hand first Tuesday of March to 
be reported by supervisor, 2 1 ; 
amount reported by supervisors 
to be added, 16; Treasurer and 
Superintendent may borrow, 12; 

apportionment ; by Commissioner 
of Education, 196; by school 
commissioners, 15-18, 32; by 
Superintendent, 11-15; applica- 
tion of, 84; certificate to county 
clerk, treasurer, commissioners 
etc., 15, 17; to cities and villages, 
84; deducted from next appor- 
tionment , 15; of dissolved dis- 
tricts, 89 ; when districts are not 
entitled to, 17; erroneous, 14-15; 
correction of errors, 17; drafts 
for money to be paid by president 
and countersigned by secretary 
or clerk in union schools, 84, 
85; drafts to name person pay- 
able to and purpose for in union 
schools, 84, 85; drawn from 
treasurer only on resolution of 
board in union schools, 84, 85; 
fines and penalties, 16; for 
Indian schools, 114; for kinder- 
garten pupils, iii; to orphan 
schools, 113; paid only on reso- 
lution of board, 84, 85; paid to 
treasurer in union schools, 85 ; 
payable to counties, 15; separate 
neighborhoods, 119; set apart to 



districts, 17; public money not 
to be paid by supervisor after 
first Tuesday in March, 21; who 
shall disburse when supervisor 
refuses to give security, 18; sup- 
plementary apportionment, 15; 
can not be paid unqualified 
teachers, 49 ; when paid for un- 
licensed teachers' wages, 14; 
for attendance at teachers in- 
stitute, 93; Commissioner of 
Education may withhold for 
failure to enforce compulsory 
education law, 126; Superinten- 
dent may withhold from districts 
for cause, 1 1 ; withheld for failure 
to comply with physiology law, 
109; may be withheld when li- 
brary money is used for other 
purposes, 10 1; may be withheld 
for disobedience of decisions of 
State Superintendent, 11. 

loss of: 102-5; shall be replaced, 
102-3; district to vote tax to 
replace, 37; which might have 
been collected, 65. 

See also Gifts ; Gospel and school 
lots; Library moneys. 

School officers, costs inactions, 103; 
neglect to sue for penalties, 102; 
qualifications, 71-72; Superin- 
tendent may remove, 1 1 ; practice 
on application for removal of, 136- 
38; term of office, 41, 44. See also 
District officers. 

School registers. Superintendent to 
prepare, 11; teachers to keep 
record in, 55; affidavits by teach- 
ers to correctness of, 55. 

School savings banks, 176-77. 

School term, length, 13, 51. 

Schoolhouse sites, 41-44; acquire- 
ment, 90-91; board of education 
to purchase, 79; power of board 
of education of Brooklyn over, 
91; issue of bonds to purchase, 
73 ; power to borrow money to pay 
for, 73; how changed, 43; lands 
which can not be taken by con- 
demnation, 90 ; deed to be exe- 



INDEX 



217 



cuted by board, 80; designation 
of at school meetings, 37; designa- 
tion without vote, 82 ; described 
by metes and bounds, 37, 74; may 
be exchanged for other sites, 80; 
leased, etc., 37; m5ney received 
for old site to be applied towards 
new, 44; vote to raise money for, 
how rescinded, 73; sale of former 
site, 43 ; may be sold by board 
when authorized by vote of dis- 
trict, 80; manner of raising tax for 
union schools other than city and 
village, 73; special notice required 
before voting tax for, 72 ; not sub- 
ject to taxation, 80; title already 
vested in board, 80; title to be 
vested in board of education in 
cities of less than 30,000, 91 ; vote, 
37, 74- 

Schoolhouses, 41-44; board of edu- 
cation to purchase or hire, 79 ; 
board of education to have pos- 
session of, 80; issue of bonds to 
purchase, 73; power to borrow 
money to pay for, 73; special 
meeting to consider, building, 27; 
may be condemned by school com- 
missioner, 27; fire escapes, S3, 82; 
furniture, 37; furnished with fuel, 
etc., 37; hire, purchase etc., 37; 
insurance, 37, 50-51, 79; liquors 
not to be sold near, 201-2; 
vote to raise money for, how 
rescinded, 74; plans to be 
approved by Commissioner of 
Education, 41; repairs, 37, 54; 
tax for, approved by Commissioner 
of Education, 42 ; special notice re- 
quired before voting tax for, 72, 
74; manner of voting tax in union 
schools other than city and village, 
73; not subject to taxation, 80 
title already vested in board, 80 
shall not stand on town line, 41 
use for school commissioner, 29 
use for teachers institute, 92; use 
for other purposes, 55 ; ventilation, 
41, 79- 

Seal of Superintendent, 9. 



Secretary of the Board of Regents, 
office abolished, 5. 

Separate neighborhoods, 118-20. 

Sites, see Schoolhouse sites. 

Southampton, union free school dis- 
trict no. II under consolidated 
school law, 194-95. 

Special acts, see under subject of act. 

Special meetings, see School m_eetingR. 

State certificates, annulled, 10, 28; 
indorsed by Superintendent when 
issued by other states, 10; law 
granting, 10; list kept by Superin- 
tendent, II. 

State scholarships in Cornell Univer- 
sity, 96—99. 

State Superintendent, see Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction. 

State treasurer, 8; temporary loan 
made in connection with Superin- 
tendent, 12. 

Subjects taught under compulsory 
education law, 120. 

Subpoenas by school commissioners, 
29. 

Suits, see Actions. 

Summer institutes, 94-95. 

Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
affidavits taken by, t i ; contracts 
with American Museum of Natural 
History, 162 ; appeals to, 10 1-2 ; ap- 
portionment of public moneys, 11- 
15; duties relative to Arbor day, 
117; may order special election to 
fill vacancy in boards of education, 
81; board of education to report 
when required, 86; board of edu- 
cation supervised by, 86; may re- 
move members of board, 86; bien- 
nial school census to be taken, 180- 
81; to grant teachers certificates, 
10; list of persons receiving cer- 
tificates and normal diplomas kept 
by, 11; certificates, etc. annulled 
by, 10; annulments noted by, 11; 
to appoint examiners etc. for state 
certificates, 10; clerks appointed 
by, 9 ; college graduate certificates *, 
issued by, 10; to settle dispute in 
regard to ordinary contingent ex- 



2l8 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



pense, 84; ex officio trustee of Cor- 
nell University, 9; duties relative 
to, Cornell scholarship examina- 
tion, 98; duties concerning deaf, 
dumb and blind institutions, 115- 
16 ; decisions final, 89, loi ; deputy, 
8; chief clerk as second deputy 
appointed by, 181; may indorse 
diplomas from other states, 10; 
copies of proceedings of dissolved 
tinion schools filed with, 89 ; elec- 
tion, 8; to call special election in 
districts over 300, 41, 78; election 
disputes, powers concerning, 78; 
to apportion fines and penalties, 
20; to prepare program for salute 
to flag, 178; to receive gifts for use 
in common schools, 18-19; reports 
from officers relative to gospel 
funds, etc., 19-20; statement of 
gospel fund and money in hands of 
overseer of poor, 20; to provide 
for education. of Indian children, 
9, 113; to permit Indian children 
to enter public schools, 48; to 
order payment of tuition for In- 
dians in normal schools, 172 ; pow- 
ers as to teachers institutes, 91, 
9 2 ; to apportion public money to 
districts for institute week, 93; 
to prepare and distribute school 
laws, 117; duties relative to dis- 
trict library, 99-101; powers as 
to library moneys, loi; to issue 
temporary licenses, 10; may call 
special meeting when annual meet- 
ing is not held, 34; may authorize 
special meeting for forming union 
school district, 66; minutes of 
meeting organizing union school 
to be filed with, 69 ; ex officio 
trustee of New York State Asylum 
for Idiots, 9; duties relative to 
normal schools, 9, 164-70; may 
administer oaths, 11; office, 8; 
office abolished, 5 ; districts failing 
to comply with physiology law 
included in reports, 109; appeal to 
concerning physiology law, no; 
blank forras of affidavit regarding 



physiology law provided by, no; 
to furnish pictorial instruction, 
161; ex officio Regent of Univer- 
sity, 9; reports to Legislature, 9— 10; 
to require reports, 11; to prepare 
registers, blanks, forms and regula- 
tions for making reports, etc., 11; 
salary, 8 ; may remove school com- 
missioner, I'l ; may fill vacancy in 
office of school commissioner, 25; 
may withhold payment of school 
commissioner's salary, 26; to in- 
struct school commissioner relative 
to reports by trustees in districts 
under contract, 107; official seal, 
9 ; to approve formation of separate 
neighborhoods, 118; to apportion 
public money to separate neigh- 
borhoods, 119; to appoint summer 
institutes ,94; amendment of tax list 
approved by, 65 ; term of office, 8; 
duties relative to training classes, 
95; training schools, 183; to order 
meeting for organizing union school 
in two or more districts, 68; va- 
cancy in office, how filled, 8; to 
visit common schools, 9 ; may ap- 
point persons to visit common 
schools, 9 ; may appoint persons 
to visit common schools, 9; 
to visit union schools, 86 ; to 
provide instruction in vocal 
music in teachers institutes, in; 
may withhold public money to 
enforce decision, 11. 

Superintendents, see City and village 
superintendents . 

Supervision quota, 13. 

Supervisors, account to be furnished 
Superintendent by town clerk, 
23; costs in actions against, 103; 
to sit with school commissioner 
and town clerk in alteration pro- 
ceedings, 30; pay allowed in alter- 
ation proceedings, 31; acts may 
be appealed from, loi; apportion- 
ment of school moneys, 21-23; 
certificate of apportionment to, 
1 7 ; apportionment of library 
moneys, 22; to apportion money 



INDEX 



219 



arising from the sale of gospel 
lands, 179; assessments between 
districts lying in two or more 
towns, 59; balance reported to 
school commissioner, 32; unex- 
pended balances recharged, 16; to 
furnish bond, 18; penalty for re- 
fusal to give bond, 18; successor 
to give bond, 18; county treas- 
urer may sue bond, 18; to 
report money on hand to county 
treasurer, 16; application of pro- 
ceeds of dissolved districts, 32; 
may divide commissioner dis- 
tricts, 160; fees, 175-76; to report 
fines and penalties collected to 
school commissioner, 22—23; 'to 
sue for fines and penalties, 22-23; 
to receive gifts for use in common 
schools, 19; to report money in 
hands of overseer of poor, 20; 
when to receive public money, 
17-18; to sue for money due from 
school officers, 32; to receive pay 
for service, 59 ; powers and duties, 
21-23; to copy school commis- 
sioner's certificates and file with 
town clerk, 17; school commis- 
sioner's salary increased by, 25; 
charged with duties imposed upon 
commissioners of common schools, 
21; school commissioner's ex- 
penses audited by, 26; to act in 
erecting or altering school dis- 
tricts, 23; to sell schoolhouse and 
apply proceeds when district is 
dissolved, 32; to give notice of 
sale of schoolhouse, 32; to sum- 
mon supervisor from adjoining 
town when unable to agree on 
equalization, 59; to collect unpaid 
taxes for school districts, 61; to 
pay to collector unpaid taxes, 61; 
county treasurer to furnish board 
with certificate of unpaid taxes, 61 ; 
treasurer to demand money of, 47 ; 
not eligible to office of trustee, 44; 
to sue trustee for not replacing 
lost edition of code, 106; trustee 
to notify treasurer and Superin- 



tendent of failure to pay money, 
55-56; to report trusts and gospel 
and school lots to Superintendent, 
19—20; charged with duties for- 
merly vested in trustees of gospel 
and school lots, 21; to ap rove 
renewal of warrants, 65. 
Supplementary apportionment of 
school moneys, 15. 

Taxes, how apportioned and as- 
sessed, 58; bank stock, 58, 142-47; 
board of education to levy in 
union schools other than city and 
village, 73-74; board of education 
may levy without vote, 83-84; 
collection of, common school dis- 
tricts, 58-66; collection, union 
school districts, 72-75 ; taking vote 
in common districts, 38; levy on 
counties to pay loan, 12; exemp- 
tions from taxation, 60, 80, 140, 
149-52; assessment of lands in 
forest preserve, 140-41; against 
incorporated companies, 60; es- 
tablishment and maintenance of 
industrial training, 112; may be 
raised in instalments, 72, 74; col- 
lection in instalments for school- 
house, 42; on land lying in one 
body etc., 58; against persons 
working land on shares, 60; 
against persons holding land un- 
der contract, 60; on nonresi- 
dent land, 58, 60; againstnon- 
residents having agents etc. on 
land, 60; property purchased 
with proceeds of pensions subject 
to taxation, 151; on personal 
property, 58 ; railroads, 147 ; special 
notice must be given for meeting 
voting tax for schoolhouses or sites, 
72, 74; costs in defending suits 
levied in certain cases, 103-5; tax 
list, how corrected, 65; delivery 
and filing of tax list, 66; heading 
of tax list, 58; against tenant for 
purchasing site, schoolhouse etc. 
to be paid by owner, 60; purchase 
of free textbooks in union schools, 



220 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



76; trustee may sue for, 65; un- 
collectible, district to vote to 
supply deficiency, 37; uniform in 
towns of St Lawrence county, 
152-55 ; manner of voting tax in 
union schools other than city and 
village, 73 ; unpaid, proceedings for 
collecting, 61-62; how levied in in- 
corporated villages and cities, 72- 
73 ; meetingmay vote on items sepa- 
rately, 83; warrant for collection, 
62 ; warrant for collection executed 
in other towns, 64. See also 
Assessment ; School meetings ; also 
subjects for which taxes are voted. 
Teachers, 48-49; contract of em- 
ployment, 80-81 ; written contract 
given to, 107; dismissal, 51, 81; 
eligible to teach in grammar de- 
partments of cities, 184; employ- 
ment, 51, 8c-8i; examination in 
physiology and hygiene, 28, 109; 
attendance at institute, 93 ; to be 
notified by school commissioner 
of time and place of institute, 92 ; 
penalty for failure to attend in- 
stitute, 93-94; summer institutes 
free to, 94; kindergarten teachers 
licensed, iii; pensions, 196-201; 
qualified, quotas paid for, 13 ; quali- 
fied, defined, 48; record of attend- 
ance under compulsory law, 123; 
responsible for record kept, 49; to 
deliver register to clerk of dis- 
trict, 49 ; attendance of pupils kept 
in register, 55; verification of 
register, 55; removed for cause, 
8 1 ; to record visit of school com- 
missioner and other visitors, 55; 
to record facts required by super- 
intendent, 55; relationship to trus- 
tee, 51, 81; in schools for colored 
children, 113; 

wages: 14; apportionment for, 
1 2 ; claim for, 5 1 ; having taught 
25 years, additional compensa- 
tion, 196-98; money for pay- 
ment of, 16, 22; payment, 63; 
payable monthly, 52, 81, 107; 
not to be paid until record is 



verified, 55; can not be paid 
unless qualified, 49; tax for, 38, 
7 5 ; when unlicensed teacher may 
be paid, 14; unqualified, wages 
not collectible by tax, 49. 

Teachers' certificates, age at which 
certificates may be grarrted, 28, 
48; granted by school commis- 
sioner, 28; granted by school com- 
missioner in districts under special 
acts, 2^; not granted unless ex- 
amination passed in physiology 
and hygiene, 28, 109; superinten- 
dent may grant and revoke, 10; 
Superintendent's certificate con- 
clusive evidence of qualification, 
10; revocation, 51; temporary 
licenses, 10; what constitutes valid 
certificates, 48. See also Annul- 
ment of certificates; College grad- 
uate certificates; Normal school 
diplomas; State certificates. 

Teachers institute, attendance at, 
counted part of school term, 14; 
appointment of conductors , 91; 
expense of holding, 94; law con- 
cerning, 91-95 ; instruction in vocal 
music may be given at, in. 

Teachers licenses, see Teachers cer- 
tificates. 

Teachers training classes, law con- 
cerning, 95-96. 

Teachers training schools, 183-84. 

Temporary licenses, 10. 

Term of office, board of education in 
cities and villages, 69; board of 
education in union schools, 68; 
district officers, 44; district treas- 
urer, 36; officers elected at special 
election in districts of over 300, 
41 ; school commissioner, 25 ; State 
Superintendent, 8. 

Term, school, see School term. 

Textbooks, adoption of, 105; board 
of education to prescribe, 79 ; 
changes in, 105; requirements re- 
garding, to comply with physio- 
logy law, 108; 

free: board of education to 
furnish in certain cases, 79; dis- 



INDEX 



.221 



trict to furnish to poor children, 
37; power of union school districts 
to vale, 76. 

Town auditing board, supervisors 
accounts laid before, 22. 

Town board, to appoint attendance 
officers, 123. 

Town clerk, to sit with super- 
visor and school commissioner in 
alteration proceedings, 30; pay 
allowed in alteration proceedings, 
31; fee for filing collector's bond, 
63; trustee to file collector's bond 
with, 63 ; records of dissolved 
districts to be deposited with, 32; 
description and number of dis- 
tricts filed with, 30; duties, 23-24; 
expenses and disbursements, 24; 
loss of moneys made good by, 102 ; 
order of school commissioner de- 
posited with, 32; to receive and 
file tax list and warrant, 66 ; 
minutes of meetings organizing 
union school to be filed with, 69. 

Training classes, see Teachers train- 
ing classes. 

Training schools, 183-84. 

Treasurer, see City treasurer; County 
treasurer; District treasurer. 

Truants, arrest under compulsory 
education law, 124; Indian chil- 
dren, 193; truant schools estab- 
lished and maintained, 124-26. 

Trustees, neglect or refusal of trustee 
to account, 56; to provide blank 
book for accounts and records, 54, 
55 ; actions by and against, 156-57 ; 
costs in actions by, 103; acts may 
be appealed from, loi; to report 
attendance of children, 57; to pro- 
vide ballot box in common school 
districts, 36; constitute board of 
education in union schools, 68; 
bodies corporate, 49 ; to file bond 
with district clerk, 48; to require 
and approve collector's bond, 63; 
to deliver collector's bond to town 
clerk, 63 ; penalty on collector's 
bonds recovered by, 66 ; to require 
and approve treasurer's bond, 47 ; to 



transmit reports regarding bonded 
indebtedness to clerk of board of 
supervisors, 43; power to borrow 
money, 74-75; to establish branch 
schools, 54-55; divided into three 
classes, 68; to hold custody of code 
of public instruction, 105-6, 117; 
may require collector to disburse 
public money, 63 ; to give teacher 
order on collector and treasurer, 
53; to continue in office to settle 
unfinished business, 32; may con- 
tract for conveyance of pupils, 39; 
must not be interested in con- 
tracts, 159; property held as cor- 
poration, 49; to prescribe course 
of study, 52; to execute deed for 
sale of former site, 43 ; to purchase 
dictionary, maps, globes etc., 54; 
consent to dissolution of district 
adjoining union school, 31; elec- 
tion, 44; election in common 
school districts, 36; manner of 
election in cities and villages, 69 ; 
may designate place of holding 
election 39; to call special election 
in districts of over 300, 40-41 ; not 
eligible to office of clerk, collector, 
treasurer or librarian, 44; school 
commissioner or supervisor not 
eligible to office, 44, 68; to pro- 
vide fire drills, 186; to provide for 
building fires and janitor work, 54; 
to provide fuel etc., 54; to keep 
furniture etc. in repair, 50; to re- 
ceive gifts for use in common 
schools, 19; to establish rules for 
government of schools, 52; to act 
as inspector in districts of over 
300,-39; duties relative to in- 
stitutes, 93; penalty for failure 
to close schools during institute, 
94; to insure school property, 37, 
50-51; joint, 44; report of joint 
districts, 57; to purchase lands, 
schoolhouse, etc., 50; board to 
meet upon notice, 50; meeting 
called by any member, 50; to 
designate place for holding annual 
meeting, 34; to call special meet- 



222 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



ings, 27, 34, 50; to call special 
meeting for organizing union 
school, 66; to call special meeting 
when annual is not held, 34; to 
give notice of special annual and 
adjourned meetings, 50; minutes 
of board evidence of notice, 49—50 ; 
to give notice in other than village 
districts, 67 ; to keep account of all 
money received etc., 55; to pay- 
balance of money to successor, 56 ; 
to divide public money, 52-53; 
orders on supervisors, collector 
etc., for money issued by, 52; 
must make good loss of money, 
102; order can not be given unless 
money on hand, 52, 53; to notify 
treasurer and Superintendent 
when supervisor etc. fails to pay 
money, 55-56; to pay all money 
to treasurer, 47 ; treasurer to pay 
money upon order of, 48; number, 
44 ; number to be elected at subse- 
quent meetings, 68; number in 
union school districts, 68; change 
in number, 87; orders signed by 
majority of, 53; to make affidavit 
relative to physiology law, 109; 
powers and duties, 49-57; con- 
veyance of property to, 190; to 
make list of movable property be- 
longing to district, 55; to make 
repairs and abate nuisances, 54; 
removal from district, 33; reports, 
107; to make annual report to 
district meeting, 56; to deliver re- 
port to town clerk, 56; to make 
annual report to school commis- 
sioner, 56; to report number of 
days school is kept, 56; to report 
receipts and payments, 56, 57; to 
report children residing in district 
June 30, 57; consent to alteration 
of school districts, 30; to levy tax 
for building schoolhouse etc., 28, 
42 ; not to levy tax for school- 
house unless approved by Com- 
missioner, 42 ; to contract for 
building schoolhouse if no tax is 
voted, 28; to hold custody of 



schoolhouses etc., 50; to provide 
school with U. S. flag, 177-78; to 
take security for sale of site, 43; 
to grant use of school building to 
school commissioner, 29; sole trus- 
tee has all powers of board, 49; 
construction of outside stairways, 
53-54; to sue for money unpaid 
upon security, 43 ; to sue former 
trustees for money, 56; to require 
supervisor and town clerk to as- 
sist in hearing, 30; may raise 
money by tax, 55; to prefix item- 
ized heading to tax list, 58; to 
issue tax list, 58; to certify to 
county treasurer unpaid taxes, 61 ; 
to credit collector with taxes re- 
turned unpaid, 61; to sue for re- 
covery of taxes, 65 ; to deliver tax 
list and warrant to town clerk, 66; 
to levy tax for costs when directed 
by county judge, 105; to employ 
qualified teachers, 51; to make 
written contract with teacher, 
51-52, 107; cannot hire teacher 
for less than 10 weeks, 51; can 
not hire teacher for more than one 
year in advance, 51; to determine 
term of employment of teachers, 
52; dismissal of teacher, 51; re- 
lationship to teacher, 51, 81; rela- 
tive hired as teacher only upon 
two thirds vote, 51 ; to pay teacher 
monthly, 52, 107; to provide 
register for teachers' record, 55; 
order to pay teacher can not be 
drawn unless register is verified, 
55; penalty for paying imqualified 
teacher, 49 ; responsible for teach- 
ers' wages if illegally employed, 51 ; 
to collect tax for teachers' wages, 
52; to collect balance of teachers' 
wages by tax, 53; to levy tax to 
pay judgment for teachers' wages 
without vote, 38; to call special 
meeting for voting tax to stay 
judgment for teachers' wages,^38; 
term of office, 44; term of office in 
union school districts, 68; term 
of office in cities and villages, 68 ; 



INDEX 



223 



to require report from treasurer, 
48; conclusion of two valid, 49; 
of union schools vacate office by- 
accepting office of commissioner 
or supervisor, 68; neglect of duty 
or refusal to serve vacates office, 
45 ; vacancy in office, how filled, 
45; remaining trustees to act in 
case of vacancy, 50; existing 
trustee's office vacated, 68; to 
give notice of meeting for organ- 
izing union school in two or more 
districts, 67 ; to appoint competent 
physician to vaccinate children, 
139; to report number of children 
vaccinated and un vaccinated, 57; 
must be voters and able to read 
and write, 44; to make out and 
annex warrant to tax list, 50; re- 
newal of warrants, 64-65; to pro- 
vide water-closets, 53. See also 
Boards of education; School dis- 
tricts; Taxes. 

Trusts, see Gifts. 

Tuition, nonresident pupils, 48, 80; 
nonresident pupils in academic 
departments, state payment of, 
188; nonresident taxpayers, tax 
to be deducted, 48 ; normal schools, 
173; free to resident pupils, 48. 

Unification act, 3-5. 

Union school districts, academic de- 
partment established in, 80, 85; 
, academy in district adopted by, 
85; academy leased and academic 
department maintained, 85; alter- 
ation and dissolution, 86-90; not 
corresponding to cities and vil- 
lages, may be altered by school 
commissioner, 87 ; number of mem- 
bers of board increased, 69-70, 87 ; 
members of board removed by 
Superintendent for cause, 86; 
board of education to m ake annual 
report, 86; board of education to 
make special report required by 
Superintendent, 86; board to ap- 
ply money apportioned to common 
schools, 84, 85; board to use 
money apportioned from litera- 



ture fund of academic depart- 
ments, 84; board of education re- 
ports estimate of expenses for 
coming year, 83; board not pre- 
vented from amending statement, 
83 ; board may hold executive 
sessions, 84; power to issue bonds, 
73; power to borrow money, 73, 
74-75; alteration of boundaries, 
3 1 ; Superintendent decides what 
are ordinary contingent expenses, 
84; designation of district by 
school commissioner, 69 ; method of 
procedure to dissolve districts, 86- 
87; shall not be dissolved under 
one year, 69; special meeting for 
dissolution, 88; two thirds vote 
necessary to dissolve, 88; division 
of dissolved district, 88; board of 
education to present to school 
commissioner certified copy of pro- 
ceedings of meeting of dissolved 
district, 88; division, 186-88; cer- 
tain districts and counties exempt 
from provisions relative to manner 
of election, 78; eligibility to office, 
71—72; to vote tax for establish- 
ing industrial training depart- 
ment, 112; annual meeting of 
board of education in, 75, 76; date 
of annual meeting, 75, 76; regula- 
tion meeting of board of educa- 
tion in, 84; meeting of board to 
be public, 84; meeting ordered 
by Superintendent, 66; notice of 
meeting, 66; manner of giving 
notice in other districts, 67 ; man- 
ner of giving notice in villages, 
66-67 ; proceedings not illegal for 
want of notice, 67 ; expense of 
notice, 67-68; meeting of two or 
more districts, 67-68; meeting to 
vote on expenditures, 83 ; organiza- 
tion, 66; number of votes neces- 
sary to organize meeting for 
forming union school, 68; filing of 
copy of request, notice, etc., for 
organizing, 69 ; proceedings of 
meetings to form, 68 ; resolution 
to form adopted, 68; action when 
motion to organize is defeated, 69 ; 



224 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



another meeting can not be called 
within one year after negative 
action, 69; manner of calling 
special meeting, 75, 76; acts of 
meeting of may be appealed from, 
1 01; provisions of title 8 apply to 
all union school districts except 
cities, 89-90; recognized as school 
district ,75; tax in incorporated cities 
and villages, 72 ; manner of raising 
tax, 73; manner of collecting tax, 
74; board may levy tax if district 
fails to vote, 83 ; power to raise 
tax for teachers' wages, 75; power 
to vote free textbooks, 76; meet- 
ing to organize may elect trustees, 
68; number of trustees elected, 68; 
trustees divided into classes, 68; 
term of office of trustees, 68; trus- 
tees constitute board of education, 
68 ; existing trustees office vacated, 
68; board of education to appoint 
visitation committee, 84; subject 
to visitation of Superintendent, 
-86; vote to raise money, how re- 
cinded, 73, 74; vote required on 
each item separately, 83 ; qualifi- 
cations of voters given in notice, 
66. See also Boards of education. 
United States deposit fund, 11-12, 

13, 195. 
University of the State of New York, 
act reorganizing, 3-5. 

Vacancies, boards of edtication, 81; 
office of clerk, collector, or treas- 
urer, 46, 71; Cornell scholarship, 
97-98; office of school commis- 
sioner, 25; in office of Superin- 
tendent, 8; office of trustee, 45. 



Vaccination, trustee to report num- 
ber of children vaccinated, 57; 
children to be vaccinated before 
admission to school, 139-40. 

Ventilation of schoolroom, 41-42, 79, 

Village superintendents, see City 
and village superintendents. 

Villages incorporated, districts can 
not be annexed to, 31; method of 
election of board of education, 69; 
term of office of board of educa- 
tion in union school districts corre- 
sponding with, 69; division of 
union school districts in territory 
of two, 186-88; money raised in 
to be paid into treasury, 84 ; man- 
ner of giving notice of organiza- 
tion of union school in, 66-67; 
provisions in districts of over 300 
do not apply, 41; tax for school 
purposes levied in, 72. 

Visual instruction, 161-63. 

Vocal music, free instruction in, iii. 

Voters, declaration when challenged, 
35, 40, 77; permitted to vote after 
making declaration, 35, 40, 77; 
penalty for illegal voting, 35-36, 
40, 77; qualifications, 35, 66, 71- 
72; women may vote, 35, 71. 

Votes, canvass of, 40. 



Wages, see Teachers, wages. 

Warrants, to collector by trustee, 50; 
collection of taxes, 62; delivery 
and filing, 66 ; executed in another 
town etc., 64; renewal, 64-65. 

Water-closets, 53, 81-82. 

Women permitted to vote at school 
meeting, 35, 71. 



Published monthly by the 

New York State Education Department 



BULLETIN 364 



DECEMBER I9OS 



Department Bulletin 



No. 2 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 



PAGE 

State Constitution, article 9.. . . 3 

Unification act 1904 4 

University law 7 

Special laws 27 

Educational corporations, in- 
corporation of 29 



PAGE 

Libraries 42 

Professional and technical train- 
ing and examinations 43 

Index 79 



ALBANY 

NBW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 
1905 



Ksam-Ss-sooo 



-j' J -' -;^"' 



I9I3 

1906 

ipoS 
1914 
1912 
1907 
1910 

1915 
1911 
1909 
1916 



STATE OF NEW YORK 
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

Regents of the Univeruty 

With years when terms expire 

Whitelaw Reid M.A. LL.D. Chancellor - - 
St Clair McKelway M.A. L.H.D. LL.D. D.C.L. 

Vice Chancellor ---------- 

Daniel Beach Ph.D. LL.D. 

Pliny T. Sexton LL.B. LL.D. 

T. Guilford Smith M.A. C.E. LL.D. - - - 
William Nottingham M.A. Ph.D. LL.D. - - 
Charles A. Gardiner Ph.D. L.H.D. LL.D. 

D.C.L. - - - - . 

Charles S. Francis B.S. -._--.- 
Edward Lauterbach M.A. LL.D. - - . 
Eugene A. Philbin LL.B. LL.D. , - - - - 
LuciAN L. Shedden LL.B. ------- 



- ■ -^ 



New York 

Brooklyn 

Watkins 

Palmyra 

Buffalo 

Syracuse 

New York 
Troy 

New York 
New York 
Plattsburg 



Commissioner of Education 

Andrew S. Draper LL.D. 

Assistant Commissioners 

Howard J. Rogers M.A. LL.D. First Assistant Commissioner 
Edward J. Goodwin Lit.D. L.H.D. Second Assistant Commissioner 
Augustus S. Downing M.A. Third Assistant Commissioner 

Secretary to the Commissioner 

HHarlan H. Horner B.A. 

Director of Libraries and Home Education 

Melvil Dewey LL.D. 



Director of Science and State Museum 

John M. Clarke Ph.D. LL.D. 

Chiefs of Divisions 

Accoimts, William Mason 

Attendance, James D. Sullivan 

Examinations, Charles F. Wheelock B.S. LL.D. 

Inspections, Frank H. Wood M.A. 

Law, Thomas E. Finegan M.A. 

Records, Charles E. Fitch L.H.D. 

Siatisticr,^ Hiram C. Case 

^'is; lal Instn .tion, DeLancey M. Ellis 



'^^AR 



5 ISOR 
' 0/ 



New York State Education Department 



i Department Bulletin 



No. 2 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 



ORGANIZATION AND POWERS OF THE UNIVERSITY 



STATE CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE 9 
§ I Common schools. The Leg-islature shall provide for the Free , 

" "■ schools to 

maintenance and support of a system of free common schools, be "lain- 
wherein all the children of this state may be educated. 

§ 2 Higher education. The corporation created in the year 1784, University 
under the name of the Ree'ents of the University of the State of ^}^^\"^ , 

_° ■' New York 

New York, is hereby continued under the name of the University perpetuated 
of the State of New York. It shall be governed and its corporate 
powers, which may be increased, modified or diminished by the 
Legislature, shall be exercised, by not less than nine Regents. 

§ 3 Educational funds. The capital of the common school fund, ^ndT'to^be^ 
the capital of the literature fund, and the capital of the United ^'^p* ^'^^^°^^*^ 
States deposit fund, shall be respectively preserved inviolate. 
The revenue of the said common school fund shall be applied to Disposition of 

revenues 

the support of common schools ; the revenue of the said literature 
fund shall be applied to the support of academies; and the sum 
of $25,000 of the revenues of the United States deposit fund shall 
each year be appropriated to and made part of the capital of the 
said common school fund. 

§ 4 Restrictions of subsidies. Neither the state nor any subdi- state aid to 

. . sectarian 

vision thereof, shall use its property or credit or any public teaching 

" institutions 



money, or authorize or permit either to be used, directly or indi- forbidden 
rectly, in aid or maintenance, other than for examination or 
inspection, of any school or institution of learning wholly or in 
part under the control or direction of any" religious denomination, 
or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught. 



iNiiW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



UNIFICATION ACT 1904 

Chapter 40 

An act to provide that " the University of the State of New York " 
shall be governed and its corporate powers exercised by 11 Re- 
gents, and to provide for their election ; and to provide for a 
Department of Education and the election of a Commissioner 
of Education. 

Became a law Mar. 8, 1904, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three fifths being present. 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

§ I Government of University. On and after the first day of 
April, 1904, the corporation designated by the Constitution as 
" the University of the State of New York " shall be governed 
and its corporate powers exercised by 11 Regents. The term of 
office of the Regents now in ofhce, not selected as herein provided, 
shall cease and determine on said first day of April following the 
election of the 11 Regents hereinafter provided for. There shall 
be no " ex officio " members of the Board of Regents. 

§ 2 Election of Regents. Within 10 days after the passage of 
this act the Legislature shall proceed to the election of 11 Regents 
of the University of the State of New York, in the manner now 
prescribed by law for the election of a Regent. Such Regents 
shall be elected for the term of i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 
years respectively, from the iirst day of April, 1904. The Secretary 
of State shall issue to each of the persons so elected a certificate 
of election, in the same manner as certificates are now issued to 
elected members of the Board of Regents. Such Regents shall 
be selected from those who are now Regents of the University of 
the State of New York, and so far as may be, that one shall be 
chosen from each judicial district. The successors in office for a 
full term of the Regents thus elected shall in the same manner 
be elected by the Legislature in the second week of February in 
each year, to serve for a period of 11 years from the first day of 
April succeeding such election. If a vacancy in the Board of 
Regents shall occur in a judicial district, (that is, in the territory 
comprising the same as now constituted) from which there remains 
one or more representatives on said Board, and there shall at the 
same time be a district not represented on the Board by a resident 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 5 

thereof, such vacancy shall be filled by the election of a Regent 
from such unrepresented district. A vacancy in the office of Regent 
for other cause than expiration of term of service, shall be filled 
for the unexpired term by an election at the session of the Legisla- 
ture immediately following such vacancy, unless the Legislature 
is in session when such vacancy occurs, in which case the vacancy 
shall be filled by such Legislature. 

§ 3 Commissioner of Education, Within lo days after the 
passage of this act, the Legislature shall elect a Commissioner of 
Education in the same manner as members of the Board of Re- 
gents are now elected, who either may or m^ay not be a resident 
of the State of New York. The Commissioner shall receive an 
annual salary of $7500, payable monthly, and shall also be paid 
$1500 in lieu and in full for his traveling and other expenses, also 
payable monthly. He shall enter upon the performance of the 
duties of his office on the first day of April, 1904. The Commissioner 
of Education first elected shall serve for the term of six years 
unless sooner removed for cause by the Board of Regents, and the 
Legislature shall fill any vacancy that may occur during such 
period of six years for the balance of the term, in the manner 
provided by section 3 of this act, and all successors in office after 
such term of six years, shall serve during the pleasure of the Board 
of Regents, and all vacancies in the office of Commissioner of 
Education after such six 3^ears shall be filled by appointment by 
the Board of Regents. 

§ 4 Powers of Commissioner. The office of Superintendent of 
Public Instruction and the office of Secretary of the Board of Re- 
gents shall be abolished from and after April i, 1904, and the 
powers and duties of said offices shall be exercised and performed 
by the Commissioner of Education. All the powers and duties 
of the Board of Regents in relation to the supervision of elementary 
and secondary schools including all schools, except colleges, tech- 
nical and professional schools, are hereby devolved upon the 
Commissioner of Education. The said Commissioner of Educa- 
tion shall also act as the executive officer of the Board of Regents. 
He shall have power to create such departments as in his judg- 
ment shall be necessary. He shall also have power to appoint 
deputies and heads of such departments, subject to the approval 
of the State Board of Regents. Such heads of departments shall 
appoint, subject to approval by the Commissioner of Education, 
such subordinates in their respective departments as in their judg- 
ment shall be necessary. The Commissioner of Education, for the 



O NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

first year of his incumbency, subject to approval by the State 
Board of Regents, shall fix and determine the salaries of all depu- 
ties, appointees and employees within the appropriations made 
therefor and in accordance with existing laws. The Board of 
Regents of the University shall have power to establish such rules 
and regulations as are necessary to carry into effect the statutes 
of this State relating to education, and, subject to the provisions 
and limitations of this act, shall also possess all the powers now 
exercised by the present State Board of Regents. Nothing in 
this act shall be construed to affect the powers of the Board of 
Regents in relation to colleges, universities, professional and tech- 
nical schools, libraries (other than public school libraries), museums, 
university extension courses and similar agencies. 

§ 5 Of appropriations. All appropriations of public money 
made in support of the common school system, as heretofore 
administered by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
and all such appropriations in aid of secondary education hereto- 
fore apportioned and certified by the Regents of the University, 
shall after certification by the Commissioner of Education herein 
created, be paid by the State Treasurer on the warrant of the Comp- 
troller, and all employees and appointees in either the Department 
of the Regents or Department of Public Instruction shall be eligi- 
ble for transfer and appointment to positions in the office of the 
Commissioner of Education herein created. 

§ 6 All acts and parts of acts so far as inconsistent with this act 
are hereby repealed. 

§ 7 This act shall take effect immediately. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW j 

UNIVERSITY LAW 
Laws of New York 1892, ch. 378, as amended to October i, 1905 

An act to revise and consolidate the laws relating to the University 
of the State of New York 



The people of the State of Nezu York, repres-ented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follozvs: 



§1 Short title 

2 Definitions 

3 Corporate name and objects 

4 Regents 

5 Officers 

6 Meetings and absences 

7 Quorum and executive commit- 

tee 

8 Authority of Regents to take 

testimony 

9 Bylaws, ordinances and rules 

10 Departments and their govern- 

ment 

11 General examinations, creden- 

tials and degrees 

12 Academic examinations 

13 Admission and fees 

14 Extension of educational facilities 

15 State Library; how constituted 

16 Manuscripts and records "on file" 

17 Use 

18 Book appropriation 
ig Duplicate department 

20 Transfers from state officers 

2 1 Other libraries owned by the state 

22 State Museum ; how constituted 

23 Collections made by the staff 

24 Institutions in the University 

25 Visitation and reports 

26 Apportionment of state money 

27 Charters 

28 Provisional charters 

29 Change of name or chaiter 

30 Dissolution and rechartering 

31 Suspension of operations 

32 Conditions of incorporation 

33 Prohibitions 



§34 Powers of trustees of institu- 
tions in the University 

1 Number and quorum 

2 Executive committee 

3 Meetings and seniority 

4 Vacancies and elections 

5 Property holding 

6 Control of property 

7 Officers and employees 

8 Removals and suspensions 

9 Degrees and credentials 
10 Rules 

35 Public and free libraries ai.J 
museums 

2.6 Establishment 

2.7 Subsidies 

38 Taxes 

39 Trustees 

40 Incorporation 

41 Reports 

42 Use 

43 Injuries to property 

44 Detention 

45 Transfer of libraries 

46 Local neglect 

47 Loans of books from state 

48 Advice and instruction from 

State Library officers 

49 Use of fees and fines 

50 Apportionment of public library 

money 

51 Abolition 

52 Laws repealed 

53 Saving clause 

54 Construction 

55 To take effect 
Schedule of laws repealed 



NEW YOKK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



§ I Short title. This chapter shall be known as the University 
law. 

§ 2 Definitions. As used in this chapter, 

1 Academies are incorporated schools for instruction in higher 
branches of education, but not authorized to confer degrees, and 
such high schools, academic departments in union schools and 
similar unincorporated schools as are admitted by the Regents to 
the University as of academic grades. 

2 The term college includes universities and other institutions 
for higher education authorized to confer degrees. 

3 University means University of the State of New York. 

4 Regents means Board of Regents of the University of the 
State of New York. 

5 State Superintendent means State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. 

6 Higher education means education in advance of common ele- 
mentary branches, and includes the work of academies, colleges, 
universities, professional and technical schools and educational 
work connected with libraries, museums, university extension 
courses and similar agencies. 

7 The term trustees includes directors, managers, or other simi- 
lar members of the governing board of an educational institution. 

§ 3 Corporate name and objects. The corporation created in 1784 
under the name of Regents of the University of the State of New 
York shall continue and be known as University of the State 
of New York. Its objects shall be to encourage and promote 
higher education, to visit and inspect its several institutions and 
departments, to distribute or expend or administer for them such 
property and funds as the state may appropriate therefor or as 
the University may own or hold in trust or otherwise, and to per- 
form such other duties as may be intrusted to it. 

See also p. 3, Constitution art. 9, §2. 

^§ 4 Regents. The University shall be governed and all its cor- 
porate powers exercised by 19 elective Regents, and by the Gover- 
nor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, and Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, who shall be ex officio Regents. In case of 
the death, resignation, refusal to act or removal from the state, of 
an elective Regent, his successor shall be chosen by the Legisla- 
ture in the manner provided by law for the election of senators in 
Congress, except that the election may take place at such time 

^ Superseded by laws of 1904, chapter 40. See p. 4. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 9 

during the session of the Legislature as it may determine. No 
person shall be at the same time an elective Regent of the Uni- 
versity and a trustee, president, principal, or any other officer Noneiigibiiity 
of any institution belonging to the University. 

Must be at least nine Regents. See p. 3, Constitution art. 9, §2 

^§ S Officers. The elective officers of the University shall be a Elective offi- 

. . , , cers chosen 

Chancellor and a Vice Chancellor who shall serve without salary, by ballot; 

term of office 

a Secretary, and such other officers as are deemed necessary by 
the Regents, all of whom shall be chosen by ballot by the Regents 
and shall hold office during their pleasure ; but no election, re- 
moval or change of salary of any elective officer shall be made by 
less than lo votes in favor thereof. Each Regent and each elective ^mlere nfust 
officer shall, before entering on his duties, take and file with the office°^* ° 
Secretary of State the oath of office required of state officers. 

The Chancellor shall preside at all convocations and at all meet- Deities of 

r 1 -r. r 11 1 i • i i i 11 i • Chancellor; of 

mgs of the Regents, confer all degrees which they shall authorize, vice chancei- 

_,. r-11 •! • T1-1 ^°^ ^""^ senior 

and fix the time and place of all special meetings, in his absence Regent; 
or inability to act, the Vice Chancellor, or if he be also absent, the 
senior Regent present shall perform all the duties and have all 
the powers of the Chancellor. 

The Secretary shall be responsible for the safe-keeping and oi Secretary 
proper use of the University seal and of the books, records, and 
other property in charge of the Regents, and for the proper ad- 
ministration and discipline of its various offices and departments, 
and shall give an undertaking to be approved by and filed with f^l'^^l^^l^'^ 
the State Comptroller, in the sum of $10,000 for the faithful dis- Si°.°°° 
charge of his duties. He may appoint, subject to the confirma- May appoint 
tion of the Chancellor, a deputy to exercise temporarily any 
specified powers of the Secretary in his absence. 

For form, time and place of filing and effect of failure to file official oath, 
see Public officers lazv, 1892, §10, 13, 20; L. 1894, cli.403. 

§ 6 Meetings and absences. In addition to the annual meetings 4grfixed"by" 
for which the time and place shall be fixed by ordinance of the oi"dinance 
Regents, the Chancellor shall call a meeting as often as the busi- fj^g"^^ ^^^^' 
ness of the University shall require, or on written request of any 
five Regents; and at least 10 days' notice of every meeting shall be 
mailed to the usual address of each Regent. If any Regent shall sences make 

- ., ,1 . . . , . vacancy 

fail to attend three consecutive meetings, without written excuse, 
accepted as satisfactory by the Regents not later than the third 
consecutive meeting from which he has been absent, he shall be 

^ Superseded by laws of 1904, chapter 40, See p. 5. 



lO 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



6 a quorum 



May hear 
proofs 



May make or 
alter rules 



Restriction 



State Library, 
Museum, and 
other Univer- 
sity dep'ts 
under exclu- 
sive control 
of Regents 



Regents may 
maintain lec- 
tures; buy, 
sell, receive, 
lend or de- 
posit articles 



deemed to have resigned, and the Regents shall promptly report 
the vacancy to the Legislature, which shall fill it as provided 
in §4. 

i§ 7 Quorum. Six Regents attending shall be a quorum for the 

transaction of business. 

§ 8 Authority of Regents to take testimony. The Regents, or 
any committee thereof, may take testimony or hear proofs in any 
manner relating to their official duties, or in any matter which 
they may lawfully investigate. 

Code of civil procedure, §843, 854-59, i" connection with this section 
authorizes Regents or any committee thereof to issue subpoenas, admin- 
ister oaths and compel attendance of witnesses. 

§ 9 Bylaws, ordinances and rules. The Regents may, as they 
deem advisable in conformity to law, make, alter, suspend or 
repeal any bylaws, ordinances, rules and resolutions for the 
accomplishment of the trusts reposed in them, but no such bylaw, 
ordinance or rule shall modify in any degree the freedom of the 
governing body of any seminary for the training of priests or 
clergymen to determine and regulate the entire course of religious, 
doctrinal or theological instruction to be given in such institu- 
tion. No bylaw, ordinance or rule by which more than a majority 
vote shall be required for any specified action by the Regents 
shall be amended, suspended, or repealed by a smaller vote than 
that required for action thereunder. [As amended by laws of 
1895, ch.S77] 

§ 10 Departments and their government. The State Library 
and State Museum shall be departments of the University, and the 
Regents may establish such other departments as they deem 
necessary to discharge the duties imposed on them by law. All 
University departments shall be under exclusive control of the 
Regents who shall have all powers of trustees thereof, including 
authority to appoint all needed officers and employees ; to fix their 
titles, duties, salaries and terms of service ; to make all needed 
regulations ; and to buy, sell, exchange or receive by will, gift or 
on deposit, articles or collections properly pertaining thereto ; to 
maintain lectures connected with higher education in this state, 
and to lend to or deposit permanently with other institutions 
books, specimens or other articles in their custody which, because 
of being duplicates or for other reasons, will in the judgment of 
the Regents be more useful in said institutions than if retained 
in the original collections at Albany. 



As amended by laws of 1905, chapter 161. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW II 

S II General examinations, credentials and degrees. The Re-Mayconfer 

" *^ nonorarv de- 

gents may confer by diploma under their seal such honorary degrees '^g^tfiicates 
as they may deem proper, and may establish examinations as to ^^'^ degrees 
attainments in learning, and may award and confer suitable cer- *io" 
tificates, diplomas and degrees on persons who satisfactorily meet 
the requirements prescribed. 

§ 12 Academic examinations. The Regents shall establish in the standards for 
academies of the University, examinations in studies furnishing a graduation 
suitable standard of graduation from academies and of admission admission 
to colleges, and certificates or diplomas shall be conferred by the 
Regents on students who satisfactorily pass such examinations. 

§ 13 Admission and fees. Any person shall be admitted to these Open to all 
examinations who shall conform to the rules and pay the fees 
prescribed by the Regents, and said fees shall not exceed $1 for Fees limited 

•1 1*^ ru r 11-1 1 1- ,.,,to$i for aca- 

each academic branch, or $5 for each higher branch m which the demic and $5 

• -1 1 11 r -1 1 111 for higher 

candidate is examined ; and all fees received may be used by the branches 
Regents for expenses of examinations. 

§ 14 Extension of educational facilities. The Regents mav co- Regents may 

... • 1 • 1 ' r 1 cooperate in 

Operate with other asencies m bringing withm the reach of the educational 

1 • • 1 r -T • extension 

people at large increased educational opportunities and facilities, 
by stimulating interest, recommending methods, designating suit- 
able teachers and lecturers, lending necessary books and appa- 
ratus, conducting" examinations and granting credentials and 
otherwise aidino- such work. No money appropriated by the state not to 

"-^ . .pay teachers 

state for this work shall be expended in paying for services or expenses or 
expenses of teachers or lecturers. 

§11; State Library ; how^ constituted. All books, pamphlets, au state 

. literary prop- 

manuscripts, records, archives and maps, and all other property erty part of 

otcLLG l^iDr3.rvj 

appropriate to a general library, if owned by the state and not exceptions 
placed in other custody by law, shall be in charge of the Regents 
and constitute the State Library. 

^ 16 Manuscripts and records " on file." Manuscript or printed Ms and 

'^ _ records more 

papers of the Lesislature, usuallv termed "on file," and which than 5 years 
shall have been on file more than five years in custodv of the part of state 

■^ _ - Library 

Senate and Assembly clerks, and all public records of the state 
not placed in other custody by a specific law shall be part of the 
State Library and shall be kept in rooms assigned and suitably 
arranged for that purpose by the trustees of the Capitol. The'^^.^^'^ade 

° ir L J r easily avail- 

Regents shall cause such papers and records to be so classified and^^^^^ 
arranged that they can be easily found. No paper or record shall 
be removed from such files except on a resolution of the Senate 



12 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



To be re- 
moved only 
by Senate and 
Assembly 
resolution 



Library to be 
open at least 
8 hours daily 



State officers 
may borrow 



Other bor- 
rowers 



$15,000 annu- 
ally for books 



Charge of cer- 
tain state 
publications 



Duplicate 
dep't in State 
Library 



Receipts to be 
used for li- 
brary 



and Assembly withdrawing them for a temporary purpose, and in 
case of such removal a description of the paper or record and the 
name of the person removing the same shall be entered in a book 
provided for that purpose, with the date of its delivery and return. 
§ 17 Use. The State Library shall be kept open not less than 
eight hours every week day in the year, and members of the Legis- 
lature, judges of the Court of Appeals, justices of the Supreme 
Court, and heads of state departments may borrow from the 
library books for use in Albany, but shall be subject to such 
restrictions and penalties as may be prescribed by the Regents for 
the safety or greater usefulness of the library. Others shall be 
entitled to use or borrow books from the library only on such con- 
ditions as the Regents shall prescribe. 

Laws of 1891, ch.377, §1, makes the first appropriation for the state 
medical library and §2 embodies the conditions of the gift by the Albany 
Medical College of its library, as follows : 

§2 The said medical library shall be a part of the New York State 
Library under the same government and regulations and shall be open for 
consultation to every citizen of the state at all hours when the state law 
library is open and shall be available for borrowing books to every accred- 
ited physician residing in the State of New York, who shall conform to the 
rules made by the Regents for insuring proper protection and the largest 
usefulness to the people of the said medical library. 

§ 18 Book appropriation. The Treasurer shall pay annually to 
the Regents, on warrant of the Comptroller, $15,000 for books, 
serials and binding for the State Library. 

§ 19 Duplicate department. The Regents shall have charge of 
the preparation, publication and distribution, whether by sale, 
exchange or gift, of the colonial history, natural history, and all 
other state publications not otherwise assigned by law. To guard 
against waste or destruction of state publications, and to provide 
for completion of sets to be permanently preserved in American 
and foreign libraries, the Regents shall maintain a duplicate 
department to which each state department, bureau, board or 
commission shall send not less than five copies of each of its 
publications when issued, and after completing its distribution, 
any remaining copies which it no longer requires. The above, 
with any other publications not needed in the State Library, 
shall be the dtiplicate department, and rules for sale, exchange 
or distribution from it shall be fixed by the Regents, who shall 
use all receipts from such exchanges or sales for expenses and 
for increasing the State Library. [As amended by lazvs of 1895, 
ch.S^g, §19 and 1901, c/j.507, §14] 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 1 3 

§ 20 Transfers from state officers. The librarian of any library B^^j^g papers 
owned by the state, or the officer in charge of any state depart- f^fes may b^ 
ment, bureau, board, commission or other office, may, with the statf Librar" 
approval of the Regents, transfer to the permanent custody of the 
State Library or Museum any books, papers, maps, manuscripts, 
specimens or other articles which, because of being duplicates or 
for other reasons, will in his judgment be more useful to the state 
in the State Library or Museum than if retained in his keeping. 

§21 Other libraries owned by the state. The report of the g^ate Librarv 
State Library to the Legislature shall include a statement of the total cfudrsu'm-'^ 
number of volumes or pamphlets, the number added during the ^o^s^of other 
year, with a summary of operations and conditions, and any ^^^'"^■"'^s 
needed recommendations for safety or usefulness for each of the 
other libraries owned by the state, the custodian of which shall 
furnish such information or facilities for inspection as the Re- 
gents may require for making this report. Each of these libra- 
ries shall be under the sole control now provided by law, but for 
the annual report of the total number of books owned by or 
bought each year by the state, it shall be considered as a branch 
of the State Library and shall be entitled to any facilities for ex- such libraries 
change of duplicates, interlibrary loans or other privileges prop- privfilges^of 
erly accorded to a branch. branches 

§ 22 State Museum ; how constituted. All scientific specimens includes work 
and collections, works of art, objects of historic interest and simi- scientffic*offi- 
lar property appropriate to a general museum, if owned by the '^^^^ 
state and not placed in other custody by a specific law, shall con- includes state 
stitute the State Museum, and one of its officers shall annually in- propriau? to 
spect all such property not kept in the State Museum rooms, and feum^^ "^^" 
the annual report of the museum to the Legislature shall include 
summaries of such property, with its location, and any needed 
recommendations as to its safety or usefulness. Unless otherwise 
provided by law, the State Museum shall include the work of the Exceptions 
State Geologist and Paleontologist, the State Botanist and the Summarized 
State Entomologist, who, with their assistants, shall be included in '^^^"^ ^ 
the scientific staff of the State Museum. \As amended by laws of 
1896, c/i.493, §1] 

§2 The executive committee of the New York State Agricultural Society 
may have the free use of said cabinets of natural history, and all the speci- 
mens therein deposited, at any and all times, for such purpose as such com- 
mittee shall desire, subject to the direction and regulations of the Regents 
of the University; provided that such committee shall not remove said cabi- 
nets, or any of the specimens therein deposited, from the rooms in which 
they shall be deposited by the Regents of the University, 



14 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Collections 
during official 
term belong 
to museum 



University 
includes all 
incorporated 
institutions for 
higher educa- 
tion 



Regents may 
exclude from 
membership 



Institutions to 
be inspected 
and to report 
annually 
under oath 



Suspension of 
charter or 
rights for neg- 
lect to report 



Academic 
fund of -• 
$106,000 ap- 
propriated an- 
nually 



Restriction 



Conditions of 
sharing in ap- 
portionment 



§ 23 Collections made by the staff. Any scientific collection 
made by a member of the museum staff during his term of office 
shall, unless otherwise authorized by resolution of the Regents, 
belong to the state and form part of the State Museum. 

§ 24 Institutions in the University. The institutions of the Uni- 
versity shall include all institutions of higher education Avhich are 
now or may hereafter be incorporated in this state, and such 
other libraries, museums or other institutions for higher educa- 
tion as may, in conformity with the ordinances of the Regents, 
after official inspection, be admitted to or incorporated by the 
University. The Regents may exclude from such membership any 
institution failing to comply with law or with any ordinance or 
rule of the University. 

§ 25 Visitation and reports. The Regents or their committees 
or officers shall visit, examine into and inspect the condition and 
operation of every institution and department in the University, 
and require of each an annual report verified by oath of its pre- 
siding officer, and giving information concerning trustees, faculty, 
students, instruction, equipment, methods, and operations, with 
such other information and in such form as may be prescribed 
by the Regents who shall annually report to the Legislature the 
condition of the University and of each of its institutions and 
departments, with any further information or recommendations 
which they shall deem it desirable to submit ; and such parts of 
their report as they shall deem necessary for use in advance 
of the annual volume, may be printed by the state printer as 
bulletins. For refusal or continued neglect on the part of any 
institution in the University to make the report required by this 
section, or for violation of any law, the Regents may suspend the 
charter or any of the rights and privileges of such institution. 

^§26 Apportionment of state money. The Treasurer shall pay 
annually, on warrant of the Comptroller, $12,000 from the income 
of the literature fund, $34,000 from the income of the United 
States deposit fund, and $60,000 from the general fund, according 
to an apportionment to be made for the benefit of the academies 
of the University by the Regents in accordance with their rules, 
and authenticated by their seal, provided that the said $60,000 
from the general fund shall be used only for academic depart- 
ments of union schools, and that no academy shall share in such 
apportionment unless the Regents shall be satisfied by personal 
inspection by one of their officers, the necessary expenses of which 



^Superseded by laws of 1905, chapter 699. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW I5 

inspection may be paid out of said money, that it has suitable 
provision for buildings, furniture, apparatus, library and collec- 
tions, and has complied with all their requirements ; and provided 
that books, apparatus, scientific collections or other educational 
equipment furnished by the state or bought with money appor- 
tioned from state funds shall be subject to return to the Regents P^nts sub- 

■' _ ^ _ ject to return 

whenever the charter of the school shall be revoked or it shall dis- 
continue its educational operations. 

Capital of literature and United States deposit funds must be kept in- 
violate; revenue of the literature fund must be applied to support of 
academies ; no state funds to be paid to any institution of learning, 
"wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomina- 
tion, or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught," p 3, 
Constifution, art.9, §3-4 ; L. 1S73, ch.642, §7. Literature fund, and h> w 
invested, R. S. pti, ch.9, tit.3, §1-2. L. 1895, ch. 341, provided for an adrH- 
tional $100 to each school of academic grade, and for increasing the fund 
each year to keep pace with growth in number of schools and students. L. 
1901, ch.498, fixed at $350,000 the total annual grants to academic schools. 
For establishment and regulation of academic departments of union schools, 
see Consolidated school law, 1894, ch.556, tit.8, §15, sub. §10; §26-27, 35. For 
other details as to such expenditures, see L. 1873, ch.642. 

§ 27 Charters. The Regents may, by an instrument under their ^^oTmraxe^ 
seal and recorded in their office, incorporate any university, col- ^io^ai'^i^stitu- 
lege, academy, library, museum, _ or other institution or associa- ^|°tion ^^^°" 
tion for the promotion of science, literature, art, history or other 
department of knowledge, under such name, with such number 
of trustees or other managers, and with such powers, privileges 
and duties, and subject to such limitations and restrictions in 
all respects as the Regents may prescribe in conformity to law. 
[As amended by laws of 1895, ch.S^g, §2] 

See also p. 30, Constitution, art.8, §1 ; p.30. Membership corporations 
lazv, 1895, ch.559, art. 2, §30, repeahng all powers to incorporate scientific, 
literary and similar institutions or associations except by the Regents under 
this section. 

An academy incorporated for the promotion of literature and authorized 
to educate males and females, may establish separate departments for each, 
and, under laws of 1840, ch'.3i8, and laws of 1841, ch.261, take and hold real 
estate in trust to be used for the benefit of either department. [Adams v. 
Perry, 43 N. Y. 487] 

§ 28 Provisional charters. On evidence satisfactory to the Re- Limitations of 
gents that the conditions for an absolute charter will be met chartere"^ 
within a prescribed time, they may grant a provisional charter 
which shall be replaced by an absolute charter when the condi- 
tions have been fully met ; otherwise, after the specified time, on 
notice from the Regents to this effect, the provisional charter shall 



i6 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



No power to 
confer degrees 



Unless on 
unanimous re- 
quest of trus- 
tees, 30 days' 
notice of pro- 
posed changes 
must be given 



Regents may 
dissolve edu- 
cational cor- 
porations 



May issue 
new charter 



terminate and become void and shall be surrendered to the Re- 
gents. No such provisional charter shall give power to confer 
degrees. 

§ 29 Change of name or charter. The Regents may, at any time, 
for sufficient cause, by a-n instrument under their seal and 
recorded in their office, change the name, or alter, suspend or 
revoke the charter or incorporation of any institution which they 
might incorporate under ^2^, if subject to their visitation or 
chartered or incorporated by the Regents or under a general law; 
provided, that unless on unanimous request of the trustees of 
the institution, no name shall be changed and no charter shall be 
altered, nor shall any rights or privileges thereunder be sus- 
pended or repealed by the Regents, till they have mailed to the 
usual address of every trustee of the institution concerned at 
least 30 days' notice of a hearing when any objections to the 
proposed change will be considered, and till ordered by vote at 
a meeting of the Regents for which the notices have specified that 
action is to be taken on the proposed change. [As amended by 
laws of 1895, c/j.859, §3] 

For change of name b}' court, see Code of civil procedure, §2411-18. 

§ 30 Dissolution and rechartering. Under like restrictions the 
Regents may dissolve any such educational corporation, whether 
with or without a capital stock, and whether incorporated by the 
Regents or under a general- or by a special law, and make such 
disposition of the property of such corporation remaining after 
payment of its debts and liabilities as the Regents shall deem 
just and equitable and best promoting public interests. The Re- 
gents may also, after a similar hearing, issue to any such educa- 
tional corporation a new charter which shall take the place in all 
respects of that under which it has been operating. In the case of 
any corporation whose dissolution is contemplated or has been 
decreed by the Regents, upon their application and nomination 
the court shall, and upon the application of the trustees of such 
corporation, with notice to the Regents, the court, in its discre- 
tion, may, appoint a receiver of the property and liquidate the 
business affairs of the corporation under the provisions, so far as 
applicable, of title 2 of chapter 15 of the code of civil procedure; 
and all property of the corporation, or proceeds thereof, that shall 
remain after payment, under such liquidation, of its debts and 
liabilities, shall be paid and transferred to the Regents and be 
subject to their disposition the same as if they had directly con- 
ducted such liquidation. [As amended by laws of 1903, ch.2Sg, §1] 



THE UNRERSITY LAW I7 

For procedure for dissolution of incorporated academies having capital 
stock, see L. 1889, ch.25. For certain educational corporations excepted from 
code provisions for dissolution, see Code of civil procedure^ and L. 1901, 
ch.57, §3. 

For library corporations conveying property to New York Public Library, 
see L. 1901, ch.57, §3. 

§ 31 Suspension of operations. If any institution in the Univer- charter to be 
sity shall discontinue its educational operations without cause subject uf res 
satisfactory to the Regents, it shall surrender its charter to them, ^°''^*'°" 
subject, however, to restoration whenever arrangements satisfac- 
tory to the Regents are made for resuming" its work. 

§ 32 Conditions of incorporation. No institution shall be given $500,000 for 
power to confer degrees in this state unless it shall have resources fernng powers 
of at least $500,000; and no institution for higher education shall 
be incorporated within suitable provision, approved by the Re- 
gents, for buildings, furniture, educational equipment and proper Limit on lo- 
maintenance. No institution shall institute or have any faculty g?ees" ^""^ ^^' 
or department of higher education in any place or be given power 
to confer any degree not specifically authorized by its charter ; no incorpora- 
and no institution of higher education shall be incorporated under sICn of educa- 
the provisions of any general act authorizing the formation of under general 
a corporation without grant of a special charter on individual ^'^ 
application, and no corporation shall, under authority of any 
general act, extend its business to include establishing or carrying 
on' any such institution. 

See also State Constitution, art.8; L. 1895, ch.S59, art.2, §30. 

§ 2,Z Prohibitions. No individual, association or corporation not Conferring 
holding university or college degree-conferring powers by special ^^^^^^ 
charter from the Legislature of this state or from the Regents, 
shall confer any degrees, nor after Jan. i, 1893, shall transact 
business under, or in any way assume the name university or col - Use of name, 
lege, till it shall have received from the Regents, under their seal, versity 
written permission to use such name, and no such permission shall 
be granted by the Regents, except on favorable report after per- 
sonal inspection of the institution by an oiBcer of the University. 
No person shall buy, sell or fraudulently or illegally make or alter. Buying, seii- 
give, issue or obtain any diploma, certificate or other instrument r^enng with 
purporting to confer any literary, scientific, professional or other '^^'^'^^"^'^'^ 
degree, or to constitute any license, or to certify to the comple- 
tion in whole or in part of any course of study in any university, 
college, academy or other educational institution. No diploma Diplomas and 
or degree shall be conferred in this state except by a regularly '^^^^^^ 
organized institution of learning registered by the Regents as not 



i8 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



False claims 



Cotinterf citing 
or altering 
credentials a 
felony- 



False person- 
ation a misde- 



Trustees 5 to 

25 



Reducing 
number 



Majority a 
quorum 

Not less 
than 7 



Powers 



Regular and 
special meet- 
ings 



Seniority as 
elected 



violating any requirement of law or of the University ordinances, 
nor shall any person with intent to deceive, falsely represent him- 
self to have received any such degree or credential, nor shall any 
person append to his name any letters in the same form registered 
by the Regents as entitled to the protection accorded to univer- 
sity degrees, unless he shall have received from a duly authorized 
institution the degree for which the letters are registered. Coun- 
terfeiting, or falsely or without authority making or altering in 
a material respect any such credential issued under seal shall be 
a felony, and personating another by attempting to take an ex- 
amination in his name or procuring any person thus falsely to 
personate another, or otherwise attempting to secure the record 
of having passed such examination in violation of the University 
ordinances, or any other violation of this section shall be a mis- 
demeanor ; and any person who aids or abets another, or adver- 
tises or offers himself to violate the provisions of this section, 
shall be liable to the same penalties. [As amended by lazvs of 
1895, ch.859, §4] 

§ 34 Powers of trustees of institutions in the University. The 
trustees of every corporation created for educational purposes and 
subject to visitation by the Regents, unless otherwise provided by 
law or by its charter, may : 

1 Number and quorum. Fix the number of trustees which shall 
not exceed 25, nor be less than five. If any institution has more 
than five trustees, the body that elects, by a two thirds vote after 
notice of the proposed action in the call for a meeting, may reduce 
the number to not less than five by abolishing the office of any 
trustee which is vacant and filing in the Regents office a certified 
copy of the action. A majority of the whole number shall be a 
quorum. 

2 Executive committee. Elect an executive committee of not 
less than seven, who, in intervals between meetings of the trustees, 
may transact such business of the corporation as the trustees may 
authorize, except to grant degrees or to make removals from 
office. 

3 Meetings and seniority. Meet on their own adjournment or 
when required by their bylaws, and as often as they shall be sum- 
moned by their chairman, or in his absence by the senior trustee, 
on written request of three trustees. Seniority shall be accord- 
ing to the order in which the trustees are named in the charter 
or subsequently elected. Notice of the time and place of every 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW T9 

meeting shall be mailed not less than five nor more than lo days 5 to 10 days' 
before the meeting to the usual address of every trustee. meetfngs 

4 Vacancies and elections. Fill any vacancy occurring in the Tmstees may 
ofifice of any trustee by electing another for the unexpired term. 

The office of any trustee shall become vacant on his death, resig- 
nation, refusal to act, removal from office, expiration of his term, 
or any other cause specified in the charter. If any trustee shall Three ab- 
fail to attend three consecutive meetings without written excuse vacancy 
accepted as satisfactory by the trustees not later than the third 
consecutive meeting from which he has been absent, he shall be 
deemed to have resigned, and the vacancy shall be filled. Any 
vacancy in the office of trustee continuing for more than one year, Regents may 
or any vacancy reducing the number of trustees to less than two candes^^" ^^ 
thirds of the full number may be filled by the Regents. No person women eiigi- 
shall be ineligible as a trustee by reason of sex. 

5 Property holding. Take and hold by gift, grant, devise or Regents may 
bequests in their own right or in trust for any purpose comprised hoidinTprop- 
in the objects of the corporation, such additional real and per- charter^Hmit 
sonal property beyond such as shall be authorized by their charter 

or by special or general statute, as the Regents shall authorize 
within one year after the delivery of the instrument or probate 
of the will, giving, granting, devising or bequeathing such prop- 
erty and such authority given by the Regents shall make any such 
gift, grant, devise or bequest operative and valid in law. Any 
grant, devise or bequest made for the benefit of any institution Bequests and 
in or registered by the University shall be equally valid whether whether in 

. corporate 

made m the corporate name or to the trustees of the corporation name or to 
and the powers given to the trustees by this §34 shall be con- 
strued to be the powers of the corporation exercised through its 
trustees. [As amended by laivs of 1901, (7/1.592] 

For enlargement of limitations on amount of property that membership 
educational corporations may hold, see p.32, General corporation law, 1892, 
§12; L. 1889, ch.191. For property holding generally, see General corpora- 
tion laiv, 1892, §10-14. 

6 Control of property. Buy, sell, mortgage, let and otherwise Trustees have 
use and dispose of its property as they shall deem for the best troi of prop- 
interests of the institution; and also to lend or deposit, or to receive lend' deposit 
as a gift, or on loan or deposit, literary, scientific or other articles, 
collections, or property pertaining to their work; and such gifts, 

loans or deposits may be made to or with the University or any 
of its institutions by any person, or by legal vote of any board of 
trustees, corporation, association or school district, and any such 



20 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Transfer 
property, re- 
sponsibility 
and rights 



Salaries and 
terms of office 



Trustees not 
to be paid 



Misconduct, 
incapacity or 
neglect of 
duty 



Previous 
notice 



Only degrees 
and honors 
specified in 
charter 



Privileges 



Rules not to 
conflict with 
law or Uni- 
versity rules 



Restriction 



Library de- 
fined 



transfer of property, if approved by the Regents, shall during its 
continuance, transfer responsibility therefor to the institution 
receiving it, which shall also be entitled to receive any money, 
books or other property from the state or other sources to which 
said corporation, association or district would have been entitled 
but for such transfer. 

Incorporated college may maintain waterworks system, p.41-43, L. 1895, 
cli.630. 

7 Officers and employees. Appoint and fix the salaries of such 
officers and employees as they shall deem necessary, who, unless 
employed under special contract, shall hold their offices during 
the pleasure of the trustees ; but no trustee shall receive compensa- 
tion as such. 

8 Removals and suspensions. Remove or suspend from office 
by vote of a majority of the entire board any trustee, officer or 
employee engaged under special contract, on examination and due 
proof of the truth of a written complaint by any trustee, of mis- 
conduct, incapacity or neglect of duty ; provided that at least one 
week's previous notice of the proposed action shall have been 
given to the accused and to each trustee. 

9 Degrees and credentials. Grant such degrees and honors as 
are specifically authorized by their charter, and in testimony thereof 
give suitable certificates and diplomas under their seal ; and every 
certificate and diploma so granted shall entitle the conferee to all 
privileges and immunities which by usage or statute are allowed 
for similar diplomas of corresponding grade granted by any insti- 
tution of learning. 

10 Rules. Make all bylaws, ordinances and rules necessary and 
pYoper for the purposes of the institution and not inconsistent 
with law or any ordinance or rule of the University ; but no 
ordinance or rule by which more than a majority vote shall be 
required for any specified action by the trustees shall be amended, 
suspended or repealed by a smaller vote than that required for 
action thereunder. 

For power to make bylaws, see General corporation lazv, 1892, §11, 29. 

§ 35 Public and free libraries and museums. All provisions of 
§35 to 51 shall apply equally to libraries, museums, and to com- 
bined libraries and museums, and the word library shall be con- 
strued to include reference and circulating libraries and reading 
rooms. 

See also General municipal law, 1892, §24. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 21 

§ 36 Establishment. By majority vote at any election, any city, How estab- 
village, town, school district, or other body authorized to levy and By majority 
collect taxes, or by vote of its common council, or by action of a ^°*® 
board of estimate and apportionment or other proper authority, 
any city, or by vote of its trustees, any village, may establish and 
maintain a free public library, with or without branches, either 
by itself or in connection with any other body authorized to main- 
tain such library. Whenever 25 taxpayers shall so petition, the 25 taxpayers 
question of providing library facilities shall be voted on at the vote 
next election or meeting at which taxes may be voted, provided 
that due public notice shall have been given of the proposed 
action. A municipality or district named in this section may raise 
money by tax to establish and maintain a public library, or 
libraries, or to provide a building or rooms for its or their use, or 
to share the cost as agreed with other municipal or district bodies, 
or to pay for library privileges under a contract therefor. It may 
also acquire real or personal property for library purposes by gift, Municipality 
grant, devise or condemnation, and may take, buy, seil, hold and ^d^maintafn 
transfer either real or personal property and administer the same 
for public library purposes. By majority vote at any election any 
municipality or district or by three fourths vote of its council, any 
city may accept gifts, grants, devises or bequests for public library 
purposes on condition that a specified annual appropriation shall 
thereafter be made for maintenance of such library or libraries. 
Such acceptance, when approved by the Regents of the University 
under seal and recorded in its book of charters, and in a school not 
subject to their visitation when approved by the State Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, shall be a binding contract, and such 
municipality and district shall levy and collect yearly the amount 
provided in the manner prescribed for other taxes. [As amended 
by laius of 1895, ch.S^g, §5, and 1902, ch. iS^,, §1] 

For establishment of free public library by town, city or village, see 
General municipal lanj, 1892, §24. 

§ 37 Subsidies. By similar vote money may be granted towards Nonpublic 

, (.,.,. 111 "^ii- libraries mav 

the support 01 libraries not owned by the public, but maintained receive loc a 
for its welfare and free use ; provided, that such libraries shall be circulation 

1 • 1 • • r 1 -r\ , ■ certified by 

subject to the inspection of the Regents and registered by them Regents 
as maintaining a proper standard, that the Regents shall certify 
what number of the books circulated are of such character as to 
merit a grant of public money and that the amount granted yearly 
to libraries on the basis of circulation shall not exceed 10 cents 
for each volume of the circulation thus certified by the Regents; 
and provided that the trustees of any institution supported under 



22 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION nEPARTMENT 



Tax first 
voted to be 
annual till 
changed by 
later vote 



Library 
money to be 
kept separate 



Powers 



Number to be 
5 unless other- 
wise specified 
in charter 



Election or 
appointment 



Term of 
office, 5 years 



Charter from 
University 



To report to 
Regents 



Exempt from 
other reports 



Reports to be 
summarized 



this chapter by pubHc money, in whole or in part, may, so far as 
consistent with free use by the pubHc at reasonable or specified 
hours, close any of its museum collections at certain other hours, 
for study, to meet the demands of special students or for exhibi- 
tion purposes, and may charge an admission fee at such hours, 
provided that all receipts from such fees shall be paid into the 
treasury and be used for the maintenance or enlargement of the 
institution. [As amended by laws of 1900, ch.481] 

Laws of 1886, ch.666 and laws of 1887, ch.313, authorizing local subsidies 
to libraries, were repealed by the Membership corporations law, 1895, ch.559. 
This section now contains the only provision of law for subsidies to libraries. 

§ 38 Taxes. Taxes, in addition to those otherwise authorized, 
may be voted by any authority named in §36 and for any purpose 
specified in §36 and 37, and shall, unless otherwise directed by 
such vote, be considered as annual appropriations therefor till 
changed by further vote, and shall be levied and collected yearly, or 
as directed, as are other general taxes ; and all money received from 
taxes or other sources for such library shall be kept as a separate 
library fund and expended only under direction of the library 
trustees on properly authenticated vouchers. 

§ 39 Trustees. Such libraries shall be managed by trustees who 
shall have all the powers of trustees of other educational institutions 
of the University as defined in this act; provided, unless otherwise 
specified in the charter, that the number of trustees shall be five ; 
that they shall be elected by the legal voters, except that in cities 
they shall be appointed by the mayor with the consent of the common 
council, from citizens of recognized fitness for such position ; that 
the first trustees determine by lot whose term of office shall expire 
each year and that a new trustee shall be elected or appointed 
annually to serve for five years. 

§ 40 Incorporation. Within one month after taking office, the 
first board of trustees shall apply to the Regents for a charter in 
accordance with the vote establishing the library. 

§ 41 Reports. Every library or museum which receives state 
aid or enjoys any exemption from taxation or other privilege not 
usually accorded to business corporations shall make the report 
required by §25 of this act, and such report shall relieve the institu- 
tion from making any report now required by statute or charter to 
be made to the Legislature, or to any department, court or other 
authority of the state. These reports shall be summarized and 
transmitted to the Legislature by the Regents with the annual 
reports of the State Library and State Museum. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 2^ 

§42 Use. Every library established under §36 of this act shall Library free 
be forever free to the inhabitants of the locality which establishes it, 
subject always to rules of the library trustees, who shall have 
authority to exclude any person who wilfully violates such rules ; 
and the trustees may, under such conditions as they think expedient. Exclusion 
extend the privileges of the library to persons living outside such Privileges to 
locality. [As amended by laws of 1895, ch.S^g, §6] 

§ 43 Injuries to property. Whoever intentionally injures, de- intentional 
faces or destroys any property belonging to or deposited in any stateprison 
incorporated library, reading room, museum, or other educational 
institution, shall be punished by imprisonment in a state prison 
for not more than three years, or in a county jail for not more than 
one year, or by a fine of not more than $500, or by both such fine 
and imprisonment. 

To like effect, Penal code, 647-48. 

§ 44 Detention. Whoever wilfully detains any book, newspaper, Wiifui deten- 

. . . . tion punish- 

magazme, pamphlet, manuscript or other property belongmg to any able by 6 

,,. . ^ ' ,., ^ ,. ^ ^ -^ ^ ^ , -^ months in jail 

public or incorporated library, reading room, museum or other or $25 fine 

educational institution, for 30 clays after notice in writing to return 

the same, given after the expiration of the time which by the rules 

of such institution, such article or other property may be kept, 

shall be punished by a fine of not less than one nor more than $25, 

or by imprisonment in the jail not exceeding six months, and the 

said notice shall bear on its face a copy of this section. 

§ 4S Transfer of libraries. Anv corporation, association, school Transfer ap- 

■^ ^-^ _ - t- proved by Re- 

district or combination of districts may, by legal vote duly approved g?nts carries 
bv the Regents, transfer the ownership and control of its library, "ive money, 

_ "^ '■ ^ _ _ _ -^ books and 

with all its appurtenances, to any public library in the University, otber prop- 
and thereafter said public library shall be entitled to receive any 
money, books or other property from the state or other sources, to 
which said corporation, association or district would have been 
entitled but for such transfer, and the trustees or body making the 
transfer shall thereafter be relieved of all responsibility pertaining 
to property thus transferred. 

.§ 46 Local neglect. If the local authorities of any library sup- -^j-fntyfor-*^*^ 
ported wholly or in part by state money, fail to provide for the \f^^'^ ^^ ^'^^' 
safety and public usefulness of its books, the Regents shall in writing 
notify the trustees of said library what is necessary to meet the 
state's requirements, and on such notice all its rights to further 
grants of money or books from the state shall be suspended until the 
Regents certify that the requirements have been met ; and if said ^move^n'??H- 
trustees shall refuse or neglect to comply with such requirements ^^"* trustees 



24 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Control of 
property 



Regents may 
lend books to 
certain libra- 
ries 



Traveling 
libraries 



Instruction in 
organizing 
and adminis- 
tering libra- 
ries: 



by State Li- 
brary staflf 
or unpaid 
commission 



Advice and 
service of 
duplicate 
department 
free to 
residents of 
state 



Fees for cer- 
tain cases 



Receipts to be 
used for 
University 
expenses 



State aid to 
free libraries 



within 60 da\'S after service of such notice, the Regents may remove 
them from office and thereafter all books and other library property 
wholly or in part paid for from state money shall be under the full 
and direct control of the Regents who, as shall seem best for public 
interests, may appoint new trustees to carry on the library, or may 
store it or distribute its books to other libraries. 

§ 47 Loans of books from state. Under such rules as the 
Regents may prescribe, they may lend from the State Library, dupli- 
cate department, or from books specially given or bought for this 
purpose, selections of books for a limited time to any public library 
in this state under visitation of the Regents, or to any community 
not yet having established such library, but which has conformed to 
the conditions required for such loans. 

§ 48 Advice and instruction from State Library officers. The 
trustees or librarian or any citizen interested in any public library 
in this state shall be entitled to ask from the officers of the State 
Library any needed advice or instruction as to a library building, 
furniture and equipment, government and service, rules for readers, 
selecting, buying, cataloguing, shelving, lending books, or any other 
matter pertaining to the establishment, reorganization or adminis- 
tration of a public library. The Regents may provide for giving 
such advice and instruction either personally or through printed 
matter and correspondence, either by the State Library staff or by a 
library commission of competent experts appointed by the Regents 
to serve without salary. The Regents may, on request, select or 
buy books, or furnish^ instead of money apportioned, or may make 
exchanges and loans through the duplicate department of the State 
Library. Such assistance shall be free to residents of this state as 
far as practicable, but the Regents may, in their discretion, charge a 
proper fee to nonresidents or for assistance of a personal nature or 
for other reason not properly an expense to the state, but which may 
be authorized for the accommodation of users of the library. 

-§ 49 Use of fees and fines. The Regents may use receipts from 
fees, fines, gifts from private sources, or sale of Regents bulletins 
and similar printed matter, for buying books or for any other proper 
expenses of carrying on their work. 

§ 50 Apportionment of public library money. Such sum as 
shall have been appropriated by the Legislature as public library 
money shall be paid annually by the Treasurer, on the warrant 
of the Comptroller, from the income of the United States deposit 



^ So in the original. 

2 Superseded by laws of 1901, chapter 457. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 25 

fund, according to an apportionment to be made for the benefit of Conditions 
free libraries by the Regents in accordance with their rules and 
authenticated by their seal ; provided that none of this money 
shall be spertt for books except those approved or selected and fur- Books to be 

approved 

nished by the Regents ; that no locality shall share in the apportion- 
ment unless it shall raise and use for the same purpose not less than 
an equal amount from taxation or other local sources ; that for 
any part of the apportionment not payable directly to the library Equal amount 
trustees the Regents shall file with the Comptroller proper vouchers sources'^ 
showing that it has been spent in accordance with law exclusively 
for books for free libraries or for proper expenses incurred for their 
benefit; and that books paid for by the state shall be subject to 
return to the Regents whenever the library shall neglect or refuse to Return of 
conform to the ordinances under which it secured them. 

§ 51 Abolition. Any library established by public vote or action 
of school authorities, or under §"^6 of this act, may be abolished onlv Abolish only 

^ ■' • by majority 

by a majority vote at a regular annual election, ratified bv a majority ^0*^ at two 

■" -^ ° ' J ■< successive 

vote at the next annual election. If any such library is abolished its elections 

property shall be used first to return to the Regents, for the benefit 

of other public libraries in that locality, the equivalent of such sums 

as it may have received from the state or from other sources as gifts 

for public use. After such return any remaining property may be ^rQ^grtv"'^ °^ 

used as directed in the vote abolishing the library, but if the entire 

library property does not exceed in value the amount of such gifts 

it may be transferred to the Regents for public use, and the trustees 

shall thereupon be freed from further responsibility. No abolition 

of a public library shall be lawful till the Regents grant a certificate Regents cer- 

'^ -^ ... tincate neces- 

that its assets have been properly distributed and its abolition com- sary 
pleted in accordance with law. \As amended by laws of 1895, 
ch.Ss9, §7] 

§ 52 Laws repealed. Of the laws enumerated in the schedule ^'^'''^ repealed 
hereto annexed that portion specified in the last column is repealed. 

S S"^ Saving clause. The repeal of a law or anv part of it bv this Repeal not to 

o^vjo J- vx- . impair action, 

act shall not affect or impair any act done or right accruing, accrued 1}°^^^ ^jabiii 
or acquired, or liability, penalty, forfeiture, or punishment incurred ties etc. 
prior to such repeal, under or b}^ virtue of any law so repealed, but 
the same may be asserted, enforced, prosecuted, or inflicted as fully 
and to the same extent as if such law had not been repealed ; and all 
actions and proceedings, civil or criminal, commenced under or by 
virtue of the laws so repealed and pending at the time of such repeal, 
may be prosecuted and defended to final effect in the same manner as 



26 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



they might under the laws then existing, unless it shall be otherwise 
specially provided by law. 

Similar and other saving clauses, Statutory construction law, 1892, §31-33. 

§ 54 Construction. The provisions of this act, so far as they 
are substantially the same as those of the laws herein repealed, shall 
be construed as a continuation of such laws, modified or amended 
according to the language employed in this act, and not as new 
enactments. Repeals in this act shall not revive any law repealed 
by any law hereby repealed but shall include all laws amendatory of 
the laws hereby repealed. References in laws not repealed to pro- 
visions of law incorporated in this chapter and repealed shall be 
construed as applying to the provisions so incorporated. Nothing 
in this act shall be construed to repeal any provision of the criminal 
or penal code. Nothing in chapter 182 of the laws of 1898 as 
amended by ch.581, laws of 1899, shall be construed to repeal any 
portion of this act relating to the establishmant and maintenance of 
free public libraries, or to the appointment or removal of any trus- 
tees thereof, or to the duties or powers of such trustees, nor shall it 
be construed to repeal any statute authorizing or fixing any appro- 
priation for the use and maintenance of any such library, but such 
libraries shall be established and maintained, and have such appro- 
priations for their uses and maintenance and their trustees shall 
be appointed and removed and have such duties and powers as pro- 
vided by this act and other statutes of the state independent of said 
ch.182 of the laws of 1898, as amended aforesaid. [As amended 
by laws of 1900, cJi.22] 

§ 55 To take effect. This act to take effect immediately. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 



Rev. laws of 1813 
Rev. Stat, pt i 



Schedule of laws repealed 



Chapter Section 

59 AH 

5, tit. 3 ; 5 



Rev. Stat, pt i 
Rev. Stat, pt i 



Chapter Section 

9, tit. 8 ; 6, 7, 8 
15, tit. I ; All 



Year 
1815 
1818 
1832 
1834 
1835 
1835 
1836 
1838 
1839 
1839 
1840 
1840 
1840 
1842 
1842 

1843 
1844 
1844 
1845 
184s 
1846 
1847 



Chap. 
207 
276 
8 
140 
34 
123 
142 

237 
226 

315 
245 
246 
381 
142 
149 
85 
254 
255 
179 

85 
132 
190 



Sec. 

All 
All 

3-4 
2 

3 

2-3 

I 

8-9 

All 

1-2 

1-2 

All 

3 

All 

1,3-6 

1,4 

1-3 

1,3,5-7 

1,3 

1,3 

i-S 

I 



Year 
1847 
1848 
1848 
1849 
1849 
1850 
185 1 
185 1 
185 1 
1852 
1853 
1854 
185s 
1855 
1855 
1855 
1856 
1856 
1857 
1857 
1858 

1859 



Chap. 
212 
262 
372 
175 
266 
360 
396 
536 

544 

366 

184 

80 

91 

50 

Z!.I0 

471 
168 

54 
355 
527 

81 

395 



Sec. 
1-2 

2-3 

All 

1-5 
All 

1-3 
All 

1,3 

All 

I 

All 

I 

1-2 

All 

1-2 

1-3 

1-3 

All 

1-3 
All 
1-2 
1-3 



Year 
1859 
i860 
1865 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1870 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1875 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1879 
1880 
1881 

i88t 
1886 
1887 
1889 



Chap, 
426 
518 
697 
179 

774 
60 

51 
557 
711 
746 
642 
176 
372 
132 
163 
289 

514 
120 
679 
493 
652 
529 



Sec. 
I 
1-2 

All 

1-2 

All 

1-2 

All 

1-5 

1-3 

1-5 

4 

All 

All 

1-2 

All 

All 

All 
All 
All 
All 
All 



SPECIAL LAWS 

Academic fund 

''-Laws of 1901, i"/;.498 {"Horton law") 
§2 In addition to the $106,000 now apportioned to academic . , 

" _ ^ ^ '^ Annual appro- 

schools in accordance with the laws of 1802, ch.-^yS, §26, there p"=^*^°".^°'' , 

-^ .J/ ' o , academic fund 

shall be appropriated annually for the academic fund $244,000 so that ^5350,000 
each school of academic grade certified to the Comptroller by the 
Regents of the University as having complied with all laws and 
ordinances during the preceding academic year, and as being enti- 
tled to share in the academic fund may receive : 

1 A quota of $100. 

2 A grant equal to the amount raised from local sources but 
not to exceed $250 annually, for approved books and apparatus. 

3 A proportionate share of the balance on the basis of the 
attendance of academic students according to the University 
ordinances. 

§ 2 This act shall take effect Oct. i, 1901. 
See also University law, §26. 



^ Superseded by laws of 1005, chapter 699. 



28 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATKDN DEPARTMENT 



University made wampum-keeper of Onondaga nation 

Laws of 1899, ch.iSZ 

§ I The University of the State of New York, which was duly 
elected to the office of wampum-keeper by the Onondaga nation 
on Feb. 26, 1898, and which by unanimous action of its Regents 
on Mar. 22, 1898, accepted such election as authorized to do by 
law, and which accepted the custody of the wampums as 
formally transferred to the Chancellor as part of the exercises 
and with the unanimous approval, both of the election and trans- 
fer, by the council of the Five Nations held in the Senate cham- 
ber of the Capitol at Albany on June 22, 1898, by duly chosen 
representatives of all the original nations of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee, 
shall hereafter be recognized in all courts and places, as having 
every power which has ever, at any time, been exercised by any 
wampum-keeper of the Onondaga nation, or of any of the Ho-de- 
no-sau-nee, otherwise known as the Five Nations, or the Six 
Nations, or the Iroquois, and shall keep such -wampums in a fire- 
proof building, as public records, forever, and is hereby author- 
ized to secure by purchase, suit, or otherwise, any wampums 
which have ever been in the possession of an}^ of the Ho-de-no- 
sau-nee, or any preceding wampum-keeper, and which is now 
owned by any of them or to which any of them is entitled, or 
to which it is entitled, in law or in equity ; and to maintain and 
carry on suit to recover any of such wampums in its own name 
or in the name of the Onondaga nation at any time notwithstand- 
ing that the cause of action may have accrued more than six 
years, or any time, before the commencement of any such suit. 

§ 2 The provisions of this act shall not apply to the subject 
matter of any litigation now pending in any court of this state. 



Certificate to collect for scientific purposes 

Laivs of 1900, ch.20, as amended by lazvs of 1904, t7L58o 
§ 36 Certificate to collect for scientific purposes. A certificate 
may be issued by the Commission,^ to any person upwards of 18 
years of age, permitting the holder thereof to collect birds, birds' 
nests or eggs for scientific purposes. Before such certificate is 
issued, the applicant must file written testimonials from two well 
known scientific men certifying to his good character and fitness to 
be intrusted with the privilege. Every applicant except an officer 



1 Fish, Forest and Game Commission, 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 2<^ 

of the New York State Museum, must pay $i for the expense of 
issuing the certificate, and must file a bond in the penal sum of 
$200 with two responsible and approved sureties, conditioned that 
he will not violate the provisions of this act, or avail himself of the 
privileges of said certificate for other than scientific purposes. Such 
a certificate shall be in force for one year only from the date of issue 
and shall not be transferable. 

EDUCATIONAL CORPORATIONS 
Incorporation 

State Constitution, art.8 

§ I Corporations may be formed under general laws ; but shall incorporation 
not be created by special act, except for municipal purposes, and f'orbidden ^^^ 
in cases where, in the judgment of the Legislature, the objects 
of the corporation can not be attained under general laws. All Exceptions 
general laws and special acts passed pursuant to this section may 
be altered from time to time or repealed. 

Membership corporations law, 1895, ch.S59, art.2 

§ 30 Purposes for which corporations may be formed under this Permits crea- 
article, A membership corporation may be created under this corpor"ations 
article for any lawful purpose, except a purpose for which a cor- provMedXT 
poration may be created under any other article of this chapter, 
or any other general law than this chapter. 

See also University law, §27, §32. The Statutory Revision Commis- 
sion called special attention before the enactment of this law to the 
fact that it would not allow incorporation, except bj^ the Regents, of any 
librar^^ museum, or other institution or association for the promotion of 
science, literature, art, historj^ or other department of knowledge. All 
such corporations must hereafter be created only under §27 of the Univer- 
sity law and by act of the Regents. 

Organization tax 

Tax law, as amended by la7us of 1897, C/L369 and laws of 1901, ch.44S 

§ 180 Organization tax. Every stock corporation incorporated g^Q^i, ^j.^. 
under any law of this state shall pay to the State Treasurer a tax ^^"^"^fPt^g^ ^07 
of one twentieth of 1% upon the amount of capital stock which 
the corporation is authorized to have, and a like tax upon any 
subsequent increase. Provided, that in no case shall such tax 
be less than $1. Such tax shall be due and payable upon the 
incorporation of such ccwrporation or upon the increase of its 



30 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

capital stock. Except in the case of a railroad corporation, 
neither the Secretary of State nor county clerk shall file any certifi- 
cate of incorporation or article of association, or give any cer- 
tificate to any such corporation or association until he is furnished 
a receipt of such tax from the State Treasurer, and no stock cor- 
poration shall have or exercise any corporate franchise or 
powers, or carry on business in this state until such tax shall 
have been paid. In case of the consolidation of existing corpora- 
tions into a corporation, such new corporation shall be required 
to pay the tax hereinbefore provided for only upon the amount 
of its capital stock in excess of the aggregate amount of capital 
stock of said corporations. This section shall not apply to state 
and national banks or to building, mutual loan, accumulating 
fund and cooperative associations. A railroad corporation need 
not pay such tax at the time of filing its certificate of incorpo- 
ration, but shall pay the same before the railroad commissioners 
shall grant a certificate, as required by the railroad law, author- 
izing the construction of the road as proposed in its articles of 
association, and such certificate shall not be granted by the 
Board of Railroad Commissioners until it is furnished with a re- 
ceipt for such tax from the State Treasurer. 

Powers 

General corporation lazv, as amended by laws of 1892, c/j.687 

§ II Grant of general powers. Every corporation as such has 
power, though not specified in the law under which it is incor- 
porated. . . [As amended by laws of 1895, ch.6y2, §1] 
Power to ac- 3 To acquire by grant, gift, purchase, devise or bequest, to hold 
and dispose of and to disposc of sucli property as the purposes of the corpora- 
tion shall require, subject to such limitations as may be pre- 
scribed by law. . . 

§ 29 Quorum of directors and powers of majority. The affairs 
of every corporation shall be managed by its board of directors at 
Residence of least ouc of wlioui sliall be a resident of this state. Unless other- 
Majority a wise provided by law a majority of the board of directors of a 
quorum Corporation at a meeting duly assembled shall be necessary to 

Act of quorum coustitutc a quorum for the transaction of business, and the act 
IS act of board ^£ a majority of the directors present at a meeting at which a 
quorum is present shall be the act of the board of directors. Sub- 
Directors may ject to the bylaws, if any, adopted by the members of a corpora- 
make bylaws ^[q^^ ^)-,g directors may make necessary bylaws of the corporation. 
[As amended by laws of 1901, ch.214] 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 3I 

Property holding 

General corporation lazv. as amended by laivs of 1894, ch.400 

§ 12 Enlargement of limitations upon the amount of the prop- 
erty of nonstock corporations. If any general or special law here- 
tofore passed, or any certificate of incorporation, shall limit the Limit of 

, ... , . property 

amount 01 property a corporation other than a stock corporation may $3,000,000; 
take or hold, such corporation may take and hold property of the$soo,ooo 
value of $3,000,000 or less, or the yearly income derived from 
which shall be $500,000 or less, notwithstanding any such limita- 
tions. In computing the value of such property, no increase in 
value arising otherwise than from improvements made thereon shall 
be taken into account. 

Regents may authorize educational corporations to hold property in excess 
of limit fixed by law. University law, §34, sub§S. 

§ I ^ Acquisition of additional real property. When any corpora- Supreme Court 

. . f f J J f ^^^ authorize 

tion shall have sold or conveyed any part of its real property, the corporation to 

^ . , f . ^ " -^ ' buy and hold 

Supreme Court may, notwithstanding any restriction of a property 
general or special law, authorize it to purchase and hold from 
time to time other real property, upon satisfactory proof that Proviso 
the value of the property so purchased does not exceed the value 
of the property so sold and conveyed within the three years next 
preceding the application. 

Dissolution of incorporated academies 

Code of civil procedure, as amended by laws of 1903, c/1.290 

§ 1804 Articles second, third, and fourth of this title do not 
apply to a religious corporation ; to a municipal or other cor- 
poration, created by the Constitution, or by or under the laws 
of the state ; or to any corporation which the Regents of the 
University have power to dissolve, except upon the application 
of the Regents, or of the trustees of such a corporation, and in 
aid of its liquidation under such dissolution. 

§ 1810 A receiver of the property of a corporation can be ap- 
pointed only by the court, and in one of the following cases : 

1 An action, brought as prescribed in article second, third or 
fourth of this title. 

2 An action brought for the foreclosure of a mortgage upon 
the property, of which the receiver is appointed, where the mort- 
gage debt, or the interest thereupon, has remained unpaid, at 
least 30 days after it was payable, and after payment thereof 



32 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Meeting to 
consider dis- 
solution to be 
called on ap- 
plication of 
owners of 
third of stock 



Form of no- 
tice 



Mttst be pub- 
lished weekly 
for three 
weeks before 
meeting 



Vote requisite 
for surrender 
of charter and 
dissolution 



Attested cer- 
tificate of ac- 
tion must be 
filed with Re- 
gents 



was duly demanded of the proper officer of the corporation and 
where either the income of the property is specifically mortgaged, 
or the property itself is probably insufficient to pay the mort- 
gage debt. 

3 An action brought by the Attorney General, or by a stock- 
holder, to preserve the assets of a corporation, having no officer 
empowered to hold the same. 

4 A special proceeding for the voluntary dissolution of a cor- 
poration. 

5 Upon the application of the Regents of the University, in 
aid of the liquidation of a corporation whose dissolution they con- 
template or have decreed; or upon the application of the trustees 
of such a corporation, with notice to the Regents. 

Where the receiver is appointed in an action, otherwise than by 
or pursuant to a final judgment, notice of the application for his 
appointment must be given to the proper officer of the corporation. 

Laws of 1889, ch.2$ 

§ I The trustees of any academy incorporated under the laws 
of this state and having a capital stock, may, and upon the written 
application of any person or persons owning or lawfully holding 
one third of the said capital stock, must call a general meeting of 
the stockholders of the said academy, as hereinafter provided for 
the purpose of determining whether or not such incorporated acad- 
emy shall surrender its charter and be dissolved and its property 
distributed among the stockholders thereof. 

§ 2 The notice for such general meeting must state the object 
thereof and must be subscribed by the chairman or other acting 
presiding officer and the secretary or acting secretary of the said 
corporation or board of trustees ; it shall be published once a week 
for three successive weeks prior to such meeting in a daily or 
weekly newspaper published in the place where the said academy 
is located ; or if there be no such paper, then in a daily or weekly 
paper published within the county, if there be one, or if not, in an 
adjoining county to that in which such academy is located. 

§ 3 Whenever, at a meeting of stockholders called as hereinbe- 
fore provided, any person or persons holding or qualified to vote 
upon a majority of the capital stock of such incorporated academy 
shall vote to surrender the charter thereof and to dissolve the cor- 
poration, the trustees of such academy, or a majority of them, must 
make and sign a certificate of such action, cause the same to be 
properly attested by the officers of the corporation and file the same, 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 33 

together with a copy of the pubHshed notice for the meeting at which 
such action was taken, and due proof of the pubhcation thereof, in 
the office of the Secretary of the Board of Regents of the University 
of the State of New York; and thereupon, if the said proceeding 
shall have been regularly conducted as above prescribed, the charter Effect 
of said corporation shall be deemed to be surrendered and the said 
corporation dissolved. 

§ 4 Upon the dissolution of such incorporated academy, as herein Trustees of 
provided, the trustees thereof shall forthwith, become and be trustees dissolved have 
of the creditors and stockholders of the corporation dissolved. settie°affairs° 
They shall have full power to settle the affairs of the said corpora- ° ^°^^°^^ ^°^ 
tion ; to collect and pay the outstanding debts ; to sue for and 
recover debts and property thereof by the name of the trustees of 
said corporation ; to sell and dispose of the property thereof, at 
public or private sale, and to divide among the stockholders the 
moneys or other property that shall remain after the payment of 
debts and necessary expenses. 

§ 5 The said trustees may, after the dissolution of the said cor- Notice to 
poration, insert in a newspaper published in the place where the prlsenTcia^s 
said academy is located, or if there be none such then in a news- Shed weekly 
paper published within the county, if there be one, or, if not, iumonthr 
an adjoining county, a notice once in each week for three suc- 
cessive months, requiring all persons having claims against the said 
corporation dissolved to present the same, with proof thereof to the 
said trustees, at the place designated in such notice, on or before 
a day therein named which shall not be less than three months from 
the first publication thereof. In case any action shall be brought 
upon any such claim which shall not have been presented to the Proviso 
said trustees within three months from the first publication of such 
notice, the said trustees shall not be chargeable for any assets, 
mone3's, or proceeds of the said corporation dissolved, which they 
may have paid in satisfaction of other claims against the said cor- 
poration, or in making distribution to the stockholders thereof, 
before the commencement of such action. 

§ 6 Upon the distribution by the said trustees of assets or prop- surrender of 
erty, or the proceeds thereof, of the dissolved corporation among distribution°of 
its stockholders the said trustees may require the certificates of shareho?ders 
ownership of capital stock, if such have been issued, standing in 
the name of any stockholder claiming a distributive share, or under 
whom such share is claimed, to be surrendered for cancelation by 
such stockholder or person claiming the said share ; in the event 
of the nonproduction of any such certificate, the said trustees may 



34 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Proof as to 
loss of scrip 



Notice of dis- 
tribution to 
absent and 
unknown 
stockholders 



Deposit of un- 
claimed stock 
and list of 
owners with 
county treas- 
urer 



Liability of 
trustees 
ceases on 
completion of 
duties above 
prescribed 



Duties and 
liabilities of 
county treas- 
urers as to 
deposits of 
unclaimed 
stock 



require satisfactory proof of the loss thereof, or of any other cause 
for such nonproduction, together with such security as they may 
prescribe, before payment of the distributive share to which the 
person or persons claiming upon such share of stock may appear 
to be entitled. 

§ 7 In case the said trustees upon such distribution by them of 
assets or property, or the proceeds thereof, of the dissolved cor- 
poration among its stockholders, shall be unable to find any of the 
said stockholders or the persons lawfully owning or entitled to any 
portion of the said capital stock, they shall give notice in the manner 
hereinabove provided for calling the general meeting of the stock- 
holders, of such distribution, to the persons in whose name such 
stock shall stand upon the books of the said corporation, requiring 
them to appear at a time and place designated, to receive the portion 
of such assets or property to which they may be entitled ; in case 
of the failure of any such persons to so appear, it shall be lawful 
for the said trustees to pay over and deliver to the county treasurer 
of the county wherein such academy was located, or to any trust 
company or other corporation located within such county and author- 
ized to receive moneys on deposit under order or judgment of a 
court of record, the proportion of the assets, property or proceeds 
aforesaid which such nonappearing stock bears to the whole stock; 
the said trustees shall also deliver therewith a list of the persons 
entitled to receive the same, together with the separate amounts to 
which they shall be severally entitled. 

§ 8 Upon the payment and discharge of the debts and obligations 
of the corporation dissolved, as hereinbefore provided, and the dis- 
tribution of its assets, property and proceeds among the stockholders 
thereof, and due provision made, as hereinabove prescribed, for 
the interests of nonappearing stockholders and such as can not be 
found, the said trustees shall become and be relieved and discharged 
froMi further duty, liability and responsibility by reason of their 
relation to the said corporation, or towards the stockholders thereof. 

§ 9 Any county treasurer, trust company or othier corporation 
to whom assets, property or proceeds shall be delivered as herein 
provided, shall hold the same in trust for the persons designated 
and entitled to receive it ; and upon receiving satisfactory proof 
of the right and title thereto, or upon the order of any court of 
record competent to adjudicate thereupon, shall pay over and deliver 
to any person or persons entitled to receive the same the portion 
of such proceeds, property or assets to which he or they shall be 
entitled. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 35 

Devises and bequests 
Limitation of bequests 

Laivs of i860, ch-Z^o 
§ I No person having a husband, wife, child or parent, shall. Bequest lim- 

. , , ited to half 

by his or her last will and testament, devise or bequeath to any estate of per- 
benevolent, charitable, literary, scientific, religious or missionary husband, 

'' . . , . , wife, child or 

society, association or corporation, m trust or otherwise, more than parent 
one half part of his or her estate, after the payment of his or hc-r 
debts (and such devise or bequest shall be valid to the extent of 
one half, and no more). 

§ 2 All laws and parts of laws inconsistent with this act are Repeals 
hereby repealed. 

For the purpose of ascertaining the estate, only half of which can be 
devised to charitable or educational corporations, under the act of i860, 
the widow's dower and the debts are to be first deducted. 

A testator can not give to two or more corporations in the aggregate more 
than he can give to a single object; viz, one half of his estate [Chamberlain 
V. Chamberlain, 43 N. Y. 425]. 

To ascertain whether the sums bequeathed to charitable corporations 
exceed one half the estate, when the sums so bequeathed are first given 
for life to other persons, the present value in money of the estate and the 
present value of the portion given must be estimated by the help of annuity 
tables fHollis v. Drew Theological Seminary, 95 N. Y. 166]. Heirs at law 
of a testator, however remote their relationship may be, are entitled to 
raise the objection that a devise or bequest is invalid under the act of i860 
[Rich V. Tiffany, 2 App. div. 25]. 

Lazvs of 1848, f/1.319 
§ 6 Any corporation formed under this act, shall be capable of Bequest legal 

,.,,,. . . 1 , - . if income not 

taking, holding or receiving any property, real or personal, by virtue more than 

of any devise or bequest contained in any last will and testament ' 

of any person whatsoever, the clear annual income of which devise 

or bequest shall not exceed the sum of $10,000 ; provided, no person 

leaving a wife or child or parent, shall devise or bequeath to such Proviso as to 

. . • , r 1 r 1 ■ 1 family of tes- 

institution or corporation more than one fourth 01 his or her estate, tator; 

after the payment of his or her debts, and such devise or bequest 

shall be valid to the extent of such one fourth, and no such devise 

or bequest shall be valid, in any will which shall not have been made as to date of 

and executed at least two months before the death of the testator. 

The proviso which forbids the taking of a devise in a will made not 
more than two months before death, is not repealed by ch.360 of the laws 
of i860 [Lefevre v. Lefevre, 59 N. Y. 449]. 

The limitation contained in the act has exclusive reference to corpora- 
tions formed under it [HoUis t'. Drew Theological Seminary, 95 N. Y. 166]. 

See 79 N. Y. ,327; yj Hun 298; 33 App. div. 49; 22 Misc. 198. 



36 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Gifts not in- 
validated by 
indefiniteness 
as to benefi- 
ciaries 



Title vests in 
trustee, or in 
Supreme Court 



Supreme Court 
to control 
gifts herein 
provided for 



Attorney Gen- 
eral to repre- 
sent benefi- 
ciaries 



Devise and 

bequest in 
trust to be as 
valid as a 
conveyance 



Trust to in- 
corporated 
edvicational 
institutions to 
maintain : 

observatory; 

professor- 
ships etc. ; 



Validity of bequests 

Lazi's of 1893, ch.yoi 

§ I No gift, grant, bequest or devise to religious, educational, 
charitable, or benevolent uses, which shall, in other respects be 
valid under the laws of this state, shall or be deemed invalid by 
reason of the indefiniteness or uncertainty of the persons designated 
as the beneficiaries thereunder in the instrument creating the same. 
If in the instrument creating such a gift, grant, bequest or devise 
there is a trustee named to execute the same, the legal title to the 
lands or property given, granted, devised or bequeathed for such 
purposes shall vest in such trustee. If no person be named as trus- 
tee then the title to such lands or property shall vest in the Supreme 
Court. 

§ 2 The Supreme Court shall have the control over gifts, grants, 
bequests and devises in all cases provided for by section i of this act. 
The Attorney General shall represent the beneficiaries in all such 
cases and it shall be his duty to enforce such trusts by proper pro- 
ceedings in the court. 

See also L. 1901, ch.291. 

Ch. 701 of the laws of 1893 can have no retroactive force and does not 
apply to a case where the property had, by the death of the testator, vested 
before the statute went into effect [Butler ?■. Trustees, 92 Hun 96; People 
V. Powers, 147 N. Y. 109; Simmons v. Burrell, 8 Misc. 395]. 

Laxvs of 1841, cli.261 

§ I Devises and bequests of real and personal property in trust, 
for any of the purposes for which stich trusts are authorized under 
the "Act authorizing certain trusts," passed May 14, 1840, and to 
such trustees as are therein authorized, shall be valid in like man- 
ner as if such property had been granted and conveyed according 
to the provisions of the aforesaid act. 

See also L. 1S90, ch.i6o; 1892, ch.2S; 1896, ch.53. 

The acts of 1840 and 1841 authorizing charitable and educational cor- 
porations to take property in trust without any expressed limit, are not to 
be construed as extending the capacity to take [if] by their charters [they 
are] limited to a fixed sum [Chamberlain ?'. Chamberlain, 43 N. Y. 425]. 

Authorizing certain trusts 

Lazvs of 1840, ch.318 

§ I Real and personal property may be granted and conveyed to 
any incorporated college or other literary incorporated institution 
in this state, to be held in trust for either of the following purposes : 

1 To establish and maintain an observatory. 

2 To found and maintain professorships and scholarships. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 37 

3 To provide and keep in repair a place for the burial of the burial places; 
dead ; or 

4 For any other specific purposes comprehended in the general or to be used 
-objects authorized by their respective charters. The said trusts cific purposes 

, .' , . . , . . . within scope 

may be created, subject to such conditions and visitations as may of charter 
be prescribed by the grantor or donor, and agreed to by said trus- 
tees, and all property which shall hereafter be granted to any 
incorporated college or other literary incorporated institution in 
trust for either of the aforesaid purposes, may be held by such 
college or institution upon such trusts, and subject to such conditions 
and visitations as may be prescribed and agreed to as aforesaid. 

§ 2 Real and personal estate may be granted and conveyed to the Property may 
corporation of any city or village of this state, to be held in trust city or village 
for any purpose of education, or the diffusion of knowledge, or for h^tmst £0^ 
the relief of distress, or for parks, gardens, or other ornamental 
grounds, or grounds for the purposes of military parades and exer- 
cise, or health and recreation, within or near such incorporated 
city or village, upon such conditions as may be prescribed by the 
grantor or donor, and agreed to by such corporation ; and all real 
estate so granted or conveyed to such corporation, may be held 
by the same, subject to such conditions as may be prescribed and 
agreed to as aforesaid. 

§3 Real and personal estate may be granted to commissioners to commis- 
of common schools of any town, and to trustees of any school dis- usTof com- 
trict, in trust for the benefit of the common schools of such town, "^°" ^<^'^°°^^ 
or for the benefit of the schools of such district. 

§ 4 The trusts authorized by this act may continue for such time Trusts to con- 
as may be necessary to accomplish the purposes for which they p ""pose is Ic"^-^ 

■1 i J complished 

may be created. 

See also L. 1892, ch.516. 

Accumulation of income from trust fund 

Lmvs of 1846, c/i.74 

§ I The income arising from any real or personal property granted {"y°™unds 
or conveyed, devised or bequeathed in trust to any incorporated J^^J^^c^^n^u- 
college, or other incorporated literary institution, for anv of the deemed by Re- 

. ^ 1 . 1 .■ . , . . . ^ ', , , gents suffi- 

purposes specified in the ' Act authorizing certain trusts, passed cient for pur- 
May 14, 1840, or for the purpose of providing for the support of 
any teacher in a grammar school or institute, may be permitted 
to accumulate till the same shall amount to a sum- sufficient in the 
opinion of the Regents of the University, to carry into effect either 
of the purposes aforesaid, designated in said trust. 



38 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEJ'ARTMENT 



Diminution to 
be made up 
iiy accumula- 
tion of income 
as directed in 
conveyance af 
I'und 



If no direc- 
tions in con- 
veyance, by 
accumulation 
according to 
discretion of._; 
trustees 

Fund not to 
accumulate 
beyond origi- 
nal amount 



Supplying diminution of principal 

Lcru's of 1855, ch.4T,2 

§ I If any of the principal of any trust fund actually received by 
any incorporated college, or other incorporated literary institution, 
or by the corporation of any city or village, or by the commissioners 
of common schools of any town, or by the trustees of any school 
district, under any grant, conveyance, devise or bequest, for any 
of the purposes for which trusts are authorized under the "Act 
authorizing certain trusts," passed May 14, 1840, and the act in 
addition to the act authorizing certain trusts, passed May 26, 1841, 
shall subsequently become diminished from any cause ; such diminu- 
tion may be made up by the accumulation of the interest or income 
of the principal of such trust fund, in accordance with the directions 
(if any) contained in the grant, conveyance, devise or bequest of 
such trust fund ; and if no directions for that purpose are contained 
in such grant, conveyance, devise or bequest, then such diminution 
may be made up in whole or in part by such accumulation, in the 
discretion of the trustees of such trust fund ; but in no case shall 
such accumulation be allowed to increase the trust fund, beyond the 
true amount of value thereof, actually received by the trustees, 
to be estimated after the deduction of all liens and incumbrances on 
such trust fund, and of all expenses incurred or paid by the trustees 
in the collection or obtaining the possession of the same. 



Real property 
of educational 
or benevolent 
organizations 
used for cor- 
porate pur- 
poses, also 
personal prop- 
erty, exempt 
from taxation 



Money-mak- 
ing corpora- 
tions not ex- 
empt 



Exemption from taxation 

Tax law, as amended by laws of 1897, ch.371 
§ 4 Exemption from taxation. The following property shall be 
exempt from taxation . . . 

7 The real property of a corporation or association organized 
exclusively for the moral or mental improvement of men or 
women, or for religious, Bible, tract, . charitable, benevolent, mis- 
sionary, hospital, infirmary, educational, scientific, literary, library, 
patriotic, historical or cemetery purposes, or for the enforce- 
ment of laws relating to children or animals, or for two or more 
of such purposes, and used exclusively for carrying out there- 
upon one or more of such purposes, and the personal property 
of any such corporation shall be exempt from taxation. But 
no such corporation or association shall be entitled to any 
such exemption if any officer, member or employee thereof shall 
receive or may be lawfully entitled to receive any pecuniary profit 
from the operations thereof, except reasonable compensation for 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 39 

services in effecting one or more of such purposes, or as proper 
beneficiaries of its strictly charitable purposes ; or if the organiza- 
tion thereof, for any such avowed purposes, be a guise or pre- 
tense for directly or indirectly making any other pecuniary profit 
for such corporation or association, or for any of its members 
or employees, or if it be not in good faith organized or conducted 
exclusively for one or more of such purposes. The real property 
of any such corporation or association entitled to such exemption 
held by it exclusively for one or more of such purposes, and from Unproductive 
which no rents, profits or income are derived, shall be so exempt, held for fu- 
though not in actual use therefor, by reason of the absence of tion exempt 
suitable buildings or improvements thereon, if the construction 
of such buildings or improvements is in progress, or is in good 
faith contemplated by such corporation or association. The real 
property of any such corporation not so used exclusively for 
carrying out thereupon one or more of such purposes, but leased Real propertj- 

1 • 1 r 1 1 11 1 y i_ i_ "i'Sd for other 

or otherwise used for other purposes shall not be exempt ; but purposes not 
if a portion only of any lot or building of any such corporation 
or association is used exclusively for carrying out thereupon 
one or more such purposes of any such corporation or associa- That part of 
tion, then such lot or building shall be so exempt only to the ex- used for cor- 
tent of the value of the portion so used, and the remaining or poses, ex- 
other portion to the extent of the • value of such remaining or taxable 
other portion shall be subject to taxation; provided, however, 
that a lot or building owned and actually used for hospital pur- 
poses, by a free public hospital, depending for maintenance and 
support upon voluntary charity shall not be taxed as to a portion 
thereof leased or otherwise used for the purposes of income, when 
such income is necessary for, and is actually applied to, the main- 
tenance and support of such hospital. Property held by any officer Property of 
of a religious denomination shall be entitled to the same exemptions '^'^ ^s^°"^ ^" 
subject to the same conditions and exceptions as property held by 
a religious corporation. 

Buildings erected and used for private incorporated seminaries of learn- 
ing, are not exempted from taxation [Chegaray v. Mayor, etc. of N. Y. 13 
N. Y. 220; Church of St Monica v. Mayor, etc. of N. Y. 119 N. Y. 91, 94]. 

The property in question must be exclusively used as a seminary of learn- 
ing in order to be relieved from taxation [People v. Campbell, 93 N. Y. 196]. 

An incorporated academy, or seminary of learning, does not waive or for- 
feit the exemption from taxation given by the statute (i R. S. 388, §4, 
sub§3), by leasing the building and premises used by it as a boarding house 
during the usual summer vacation [Temple Grove Seminary t'. Cramer, 98 
N. Y. 121]. 



nomination 
^ exempt 



40 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

The American Geographical Society located in the city of New York is 
entitled to exemption from taxation as a public library [People v. Tax 
Comm'rs, ii Hun 505]. 

The fact that an entrance fee or tuition is charged to those seeking their 
benefits, does not deprive charitable and educational institutions of the 
exemption from taxation, to which they otherwise would be entitled [Matter 
of will of Vassar, 127 N. Y. i, 14; County of Northampton v- Lafayette Col- 
lege, 128 Pa. St. 132]. 

Exceptions and limitations to taxable transfers 

Tax law, as amended by laws of 1898, c/t.88 and 1901, c/;.458 

Bequests of § 221 Exceptions and limitations. . . But any property here- 

ertyTthe^than tofore or hereafter devised or bequeathed . to any person who is a 

money or seen- , . , ^ ... . . , , . 

rities exempt bishop or to any religious corporation including corporations organ- 
ized exclusively for Bible or tract purposes shall be exempted from 
and not subject to the provisions of this act. There shall also be 
exempted from and not subject to the provisions of this act personal 
property other than money or securities bequeathed to a corporation 
or association organized exclusively for the moral or mental im- 
provement of men or women or for charitable, benevolent, mission- 
ary, hospital, infirmary, educational, scientific, literary, library, 
patriotic, cemetery or historical purposes or for the enforcement of 
laws relating to children or animals or for two or more of such pur- 
poses and used exclusively for carrying out one or more of such 
purposes. But no such corporation or association shall be entitled 
to such exemption if any officer, member, or employee thereof shall 
receive or may be lawfully entitled to receive any pecuniary profit 
from the operations thereof except reasonable compensation for 
services in effecting one or more of such purposes or as proper bene- 
ficiaries of its strictly charitable purposes; or if the organization 
thereof for any such avowed purpose be a guise or pretense for 
directly or indirectly making any other pecuniary profit for such 
corporation or association or for any of its members or employees 
or if it be not in good faith organized or conducted exclusively for 
one or more of such purposes. 

College waterworks and sewer systems 

Laws of 1895, r/!.63o . 

Incorporated § ^ Every incorporated college in this state is duly authorized 

consfruct^^nd ^"*^ cmpowcrcd to construct and maintain a system of waterworks 

waterworks ^^^ the purposc of Supplying its college buildings and premises with 

pure and wholesome water for domestic, sanitary and fire purposes, 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 4I 

and for the preservation of the heahh of its students, faculty and . 

employees, and for the preservation of the public, health of the 

town, village or city in or near which suoh college is located, and Waterworks 

the construction and maintenance of such waterworks is declared larged or im- 

to be a public use. Such waterworks, as often as necessary, may 

be enlarged or improved. 

§ 2 Any such college shall have the right to acquire real estate, College may 

. f- 1 1 acquire land 

or any mterest therem, necessarv or proper for such waterworks, for water- 

1 • 1 •' • • • works 

and the right to lay, relay, repair and maintain conduit and water 
pipes, with connections and fixtures, on, through and over the 

. ° Waters belong 

lands of others ; the right to intercept and divert the flow of ing to others 

, . may be 

waters from the lands of riparian owners, and from persons own- diverted 
ing and interested in any waters ; and the right to prevent the Sources may 

^ . . . . ^ be protected 

flow or drainage of noxious, or impure, or unwholesome matter 

from the lands of others into its reservoirs, or sources of supply. 

But no such college shall ever have power to take or use water Water from 

from any of the lands of this state, or any land, reservoir, or must not be^ 

feeders, or any streams which have been taken by the state for 

the purpose of supplying the canals with water. 

§ 3 The consent of an incorporated village or city must be ob- Consent of 

. • 1,1 1 • • 11- 1 1 city or village 

tained to lay any such pipes m or through its streets, and such to laying 
consent may be accompanied by such reasonable conditions orsary 
restrictions as are proper. 

§ 4 Such college may cause such examinations and surveys for College may 

.J 111 1 enter lands or 

its proposed waterworks to be made as may be necessary to de- waters to 

1 1 • , r 1 r 1 1 • make surveys 

termme the proper location thereof, and for such purpose, by its 
officers, agents and servants, may enter upon any lands or waters 
in the vicinity for the purpose of making such examinations and 
surveys, subject to liability for all damage done. 

§ 5 When survevs or examinations are made or concluded, a Map of survey 

' . to be filed in 

map shall be made of the lands or interests to be taken or en- college li- 

1-111 brary; dupli- 

tered upon, and on which the land or interests of each owner or ^ate in county 

1 • clerk's office 

occupant shall be designated, and all streets and roads in which 
it is proposed to lay conduit pipes, with the proposed line thereof, 
which map shall be dated and signed by the engineer making the 
same. And said map shall be filed and kept in the college library 
for examination and reference, and a duplicate thereof shall be 
filed in the clerk's office in each county wherein any of such lands 
or interests proposed to be taken are located. 

§ 6 Such examinations and surveys may be ordered and directed President and 

11 • 1 . . , . faculty may 

by the president, or acting president, and a majority of the fac- "^der survey 
ulty of such college. A majority of the trustees shall determine 



42 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Trustees to 
authorize con- 
struction 



Necessary 
property may 
be condemned 



College may 
construct 
sewer system 



May connect 
with village 
system 



May acquire 
rights by con- 
demnation 



upon the construction of such waterworks and the plans thereof, 
and order contracts therefor to be made by such officers of the 
college as may be designated. 

§ 7 If any such college shall be unable to agree upon such terms 
of purchase of any such property, rights, or easements, before or 
after plans shall be determined upon, it may, after such plans 
have been adopted, acquire the same by condemnation, according 
to the provisions of the condemnation law. 

Condemnation law, 1890, ch.QS. 

§ 8 When any such college has constructed and completed 
waterworks, as above provided, it may, by a majority of its trus- 
tees, determine upon and construct a sewer system ; and may con- 
nect the same with the sewer system of the village or city in or 
near which said college is situated, if such connection is pi^actica- 
ble. Examination, surveys and a map may be made as above pro- 
vided. Lands and easements may be acquired by purchase, as above 
provided, and in case such acquisition can not be made by purchase 
then they may be acquired by condemnation, according to the pro- 
visions of the condemnation law. 

Condemnation law, 1890, ch.gs. 



LIBRARIES 

Public libraries 

General municipal law, as amended by lazvs of 1896, ch.S76 
Municipality § 24 Free public libraries. Any municipal corporation may 

mav establish , 1 ,• 1 1 • , ■ r u:- i-u • j 

library under cstablish and maintain a free public library or museum in accord- 
^^mveisi y ^^^^^ ^.^j^ ^j^^ library provisions of the University law, being ch.378 
of the laws of 1892. 

See also University lazv, §35-51, and title 13, Consolidated school lazv. 



Regents may 
furnish at ex- 
pense of hos- 
pital 



State hospital libraries 

Insanity law, 1896, c/2.S45 

§ 39. . . Libraries may be furnished to any state hospital by the 
Regents of the University of the State of New York, subject to 
regulations adopted by them and the commission [in lunacy], the 
expense of which shall be included in the monthly estimates 
of the hospital. 

Court of Appeals libraries 

l-azvs of 1849, ch.200, §1 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 43 

PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL TRAINING AND 
EXAMINATIONS 

Practice of law 

Lazi's of 1895, c/j.946 
§ 57 Rules, how changed. The rules established by the Court of Rules for 

., ,.,,..,. 1" , admission 

Appeals, touching the admission oi attorneys and counselors to to bar may 
practise in the courts of record of the state, shall not be changed only by° 

...,., ,, . majoritv of 

or amended, except by a majority oi the judges oi that court. A Court of 

copy of each amendment to such rules must, within five days after 

it is adopted, be filed in the office of the Secretary of State; who Places of 

must transmit a printed copy thereof to the clerk of each county, 

and to the presidin"" justice of the appellate division of the Supreme To be pub- 

^ ^ •' ^^ ^ lished in 

Court, in each judicial department, and also cause the same to be session laws 
published in the next ensuing volume of the session laws. 

Law student examinations 

Rules 5 and 6 of fhe Court of Appeals 
Adopted, Oct. 22, 1894; to take effect, Jan. i, 1895 

The University is responsible only for the preliminary general 
education of law students. 

Superior figures refer to the subjoined " A'ofes on law student 
examinations." 

Rule 5, §3 Applicants who are not graduates of a college or College^ 
university or members of the bar as above prescribed, shall, before admission 
entering upon the crerkship or attendance at a law school herein Regents cer- 
prescribed. or within one year thereafter, have passed an examina- prerequisite 
tion conducted under the authority and in accordance with the or matricuia- 
ordinances and rules^ of the University of the State of New York, school 
in English composition, advanced English, first year Latin, arith- 
metic, algebra, geometry, United States and English history, civics 
and economics, or in their substantial equivalents- as defined by 
the rules of the University, and shall have filed a certificate of such 
fact signed by the Secretary of the University with the clerk of the 
Court of Appeals, whose duty it shall be to return to the person 
named therein a certified copy of the same showing the date of such 
filing. The Regents may^ accept as the equivalent of and substitute Equivalents 
for the examination in this rule prescribed either, first, a certificate 
properly authenticated,* of having successfully completed a fulP 



44 



NEW YOr.K STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Regents 
certificate 
to date from 
completion of 
examination 



Options 



year's course of study in any^ college or university ; second, a cer- 
tificate properly authenticated,"* of having satisfactorily completed 
a three years course of study in any institution registered' by the 
Regents as maintaining a satisfactory academic standard ; or, third, 
a Regents diploma.'^ The Regents certificate above prescribed shall 
be deemed to take effect as of the date of the completion of the 
Regents examination, as the same shall appear upon said cer- 
tificate. 

Rule 6, §7 A law student whose clerkship or attendance at a 
law school has already begun, as shown by the record of the 
Court of Appeals, or of any incorporated law school, or law 
school established in connection with any college or university, 
may, at his option, file or produce instead of the proofs required 
by these rules, those required by the rules of the Court of Appeals 
adopted Oct. 28, 1892.'' 



NOTES ON LAW STUDENT EXAMINATIONS 

1 These rules and other details of the Regents examinations are given in 
the examination handbook, to be had free on application. 

2 The court does not allow any equivalents for the individual studies 
here named but only the equivalents for the entire group. 

3 The acceptance of equivalents by the Regents is permissive, not manda- 
tory. They accept equivalents therefor only in accordance with the rules 
found necessary to protect the state against unqualified candidates. The 
Regents may accept evidence of completion in a registered school of one or 
more years of satisfactory high school work, and Regents examinations in 
subjects representing the balance of the required three year course (any 
12 or 24 old additional counts, 15 or 30 new). 

4 Certificates should be issued in due form by the president, dean or prin- 
cipal of the institution ; and should be signed under seal or acknowledged 
before a notary, unless the institution is in the University of the State of 
New York and the signature of the officer issuing is well known in the 
Regents office. 

5 The Regents count 40 weeks as a full academic year. If the candidate 
has passed successfully in a registered institution all the examinations for 
a full year's work, the question of actual attendance is not raised. 

6 The court and the Regents both refuse to recognize as a college or a uni- 
versity an institution which, though taking the name, in reality does work 
of a lower grade. Colleges of medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, business col- 
leges and all similar professional and technical schools are not registered 
as colleges. By college is understood an institution which requires for ad- 
mission four j^ears of academic or high school preparation in addition to the 
preacademic or grammar school studies, and which gives four full years 
of college instruction as a condition of graduation. Institutions with 
courses of six full years in liberal arts and science are sometimes regis- 
tered. In all cases however the total of academic and college work must be 
not less than six years in advance of grammar school studies. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 45 

The court also refuses to recognize as " study in a college," work in an 
academic or lower department conducted and supervised by a college. To 
be accepted as an equivalent by the Regents the work must be of college 
grade. 

7 Besides the institutions of higher education in the State of New York, 
inspected by the Regents, institutions in other states and countries are reg- 
istered on rehable information that the minimum standard is fully met. 
If credentials are ofifered from any institution not registered the necessary 
investigation will be made as promptly as possible and the candidate noti- 
fied whether the credentials can be accepted. The frequent changes in or- 
ganization and standards and the practical difficulties of recording the 
grade of work outside regularly organized institutions have made neces- 
sary the rule that credentials from private tutors or from unregistered 
schools can not be accepted. 

8 The term " Regents diploma " as here used includes all credentials by 
which the University certihes to the completion of a full academic course. 

9 All students who had begun their law course or clerkship before Jan. i, 
1895, as shown by the law school or Court of Appeals records, may secure 
a certificate under the 1892 requirements. All others must , meet the ad- 
vanced requirements under the rules of Oct. 22, 1894. 

The rule of 1892 was as follows : 

Before any person shall enter upon the clerkship, or substituted course 
of study hereinafter provided, or in one year thereafter, he shall, if not a 
graduate of a college or university registered by the Regents as maintain- 
ing a satisfactory standard, pass an examination conducted under the au- 
thority and in accordance with the ordinances and rules of the University 
of the State of New York in English composition, first year Latin, arith- 
metic, geometry, English and United States history, and civics, or in their 
substantial equivalents defined by the rules of the University, and shall file 
a certificate of such fact, signed by the secretary of the University, with 
the clerk of the Court of Appeals, who shall return to the person named 
therein a certified copy of the same showing the date of such filing. 

Law student certificate 

On receiving this certificate the candidate must send it to the 
clerk of the Court of Appeals at Albany, who will file it and return 
a certified copy on payment of $1. The Department issues but one 
certificate to each candidate. 

When a candidate does not obtain a law student certificate 
within one year from the date of filing his certificate of clerk- 
ship, it is not necessary to file a new certificate of clerkship ; but 
the period of clerkship in this case will be reckoned from one 
year prior to the date of earning of the law student certificate as 
stated therein. 

The exact ground covered by these examinations is shown in 
the Academic Syllabus which is mailed prepaid for 25 cents. Exami- 
nation papers for the year may be had in paper for 25 cents. 



46 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Practice of medicine 



University 
Regents 

Board 

Medical 
examiner 



Medical 
school 



Medicine 

Physician 

Practice of 
medicine 
without legal 
authority 
forbidden 

Conviction 
of felony or 
withdrawal 
of license 
disqualifies 



Three boards 
of medical ex- 
aminers of 
seven mem- 
bers each, to 
serve three 
years 



Appointed by 
Regents from 
nominees of 
the three state 
medical 
societies 



Regents to fill 
vacancies for 
unexpired term 

Appointees 
must hold 
degree of 
M. D., and 
must have 
practised 
medicine in 
this state not 
less than 5 
vears 



Public health lazv, 1893, ch.66i, art.8, as amended to June 1902 

Definitions. As used in this article. 

University means University of the State of New York. 

Regents means Board of Regents of the University of the State 
of New York. 

Board means a board of medical examiners of the State of New 
York. 

Medical examiner means a member of a board of medical ex- 
aminers of the State of New York. 

Medical school means any medical school, college, or department 
of a university, registered by the Regents as maintaining a proper 
medical standard and as legally incorporated. 

Medicine means medicine and surgery. 

Physician means physician and surgeon. 

§ 140 Qualifications. No person shall practise medicine after 
Sep. I, 1891, unless previously registered and legally authorized 
or unless licensed by the Regents and registered as required by 
this article ; nor shall any person practise medicine who has ever 
been convicted of a felony by any court, or whose authority to 
practise is suspended or revoked by the Regents on recommenda- 
tion of a state board. 

§ 141 State boards of medical examiners. There shall continue 
to be three separate state boards of medical examiners of seven 
members each, each of whom shall hold office for three years 
from Aug. i of the year in which appointed. One board shall 
represent the Medical Society of the State of New York, one the 
Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York and one 
the Eclectic Medical Society of the State of New York. Each of 
these three societies shall at each annual meeting nominate twice 
the number of examiners to be appointed in that year on the board 
representing it. The names of such nominees shall be annually 
transmitted under seal by the president and secretary prior to 
May I to the Regents, who shall, prior to Aug. i, appoint from 
such lists the examiners required to fill any vacancies that will 
occur from expiration of term on Aug. i. Any other vacancy, 
however occurring, shall likewise be filled by the Regents for the 
unexpired term. Each nominee before appointment, shall furnish 
to the Regents proof that he has received the degree of doctor of 
medicine from some registered medical school and that he has 
legallv practised medicine in this state for at least five years. If 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 47 

no nominees are legrallv before them from a society the Resients Failure to 

, . nominate 

may appoint from members in good standing of such society with- 
out restriction. The Regents may remove any examiner for mis- Examiner may 

<^ ■' ■' be removed 

conduct, incapacity or neglect of duty. for cause 

§ 142 Certificate of appointment ; oaths ; powers. Every medi- Appointees 
cal examiner shall receive a certificate of appointment from the certificates 
Regents and before beginning his term of office shall file with the ment from 
Secretary of State the constitutional oath of office. Each board, muTst take 

. oath of oflfice 

or any committee thereof, may take testimony and proofs con- Bo^j-^g 
cerning all matters within its jurisdiction. Each board may, ^^'"'^ *^^^^™°">' 
subject to the Regents' approval, make all bylaws and rules not ^j^^^jj ^^,.g 
inconsistent with law needed in performing its duty ; but no bylaw to^Regenll^* 
or rule bv which more than a majority vote is required for any approval 

•' -^ ^ -^ Restriction 

Specified action by the board shall be amended, suspended or repealed 
by a smaller vote than that required for action thereunder. 

^ § 143 Expenses. From the fees provided by this article, the Regents to 

-P, ,, . J u -J- • • pay expenses 

Regents may pay all proper expenses incurred by its provisions from fees 
except compensation to medical examiners ; and any surplus at the Surplus u 
end of any academic year shall be apportioned among the three among exam 
boards pro rata according to the number of candidates whose 
answer papers have been marked by each. 

§144 Officers; meetings; quorum; committees. Each board Board to elect 

, _ president and 

shall annuallv elect from its members a president and a secretary secretary, to 

^ , meet on call 

for the academic year, and shall hold one or more meetings each of Regents 
year pursuant to call of the Regents, who may also call joint meet- 
ings of the three boards or of their officers. At any meeting a Majority a 
majority shall constitute a quorum; but questions prepared by theSiitteeTn^ay^ 
boards may be grouped and edited, or answer papers of candidates or 'eximLe'"^ 
may be examined and marked by committees duly authorized by 
the boards and by the Regents. 

§ 145 Admission to examination. The Regents shall admit to Candidate tc 

^"^ . o pay fee ana to 

examination any candidate who pays a fee of $2t; and submits f"'l"^i" satis- 

^ -^ T .J lactory evi- 

satisfactory evidences, verified by oath, if required, that he dance "as to: 

1 Is more than 21 years of age. age: 

2 Is of good moral character. character; 

3 Has the general education required preliminary to receiving preliminary 

• ij 1-111 1 r ,...,. education; 

the degree of bachelor or doctor of medicine m this state. 

4 Has studied medicine not less than four full school vears professional 

J. , . 1 , . 1 , . ^ ■' education 

01 at least nine months each, including four satisfactory courses 
' See also the laws of 1905, chapter 700. 



48 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



No medical 
school below 
New York 
standard to 
be registered 



Equivalent 
for educa- 
tional re- 
quirement 



Candidate 
must hold 
M. B. M. D. 
or foreign 
license 



M. B. or M. D 
not to be con- 
ferred till can- 
didate files 
P,egents cer- 
tificate of: 



1 Graduation 
from college 
or high school 

2 Education 
fully equiv- 
alent; 



3 Medical 
student 
certificate ; 

4 Prescribed 
examinations 



of at least six months each, in four different calendar years in a 
medical school registered as maintaining at the time a satis- 
factory standard. New York medical schools and New York 
medical students shall not be discriminated against by the regis- 
tration of any medical school out of the state whose minimum 
graduation standard is less than that fixed by statutes for New 
York medical schools. The Regents may, in their discretion, ac- 
cept as the equivalent for any part of the third and fourth require- 
ment, evidence of five or more years' reputable practice, pro- 
vided that such substitution be specified in the license, and as 
the equivalent of the first year of the fourth requirement evi- 
dence of graduation from a registered college course, provided 
that such college course shall have included not less than the 
minimum requirements prescribed by the Regents for such admis- 
sion to advanced standing. The Regents may also in their dis- 
cretion admit conditionally to the examination in anatomy, 
physiology and hygiene, and chemistry, applicants 19 years of age 
certified as having studied medicine not less than two full years 
of at least nine months each, including two satisfactory courses of 
at least six months each, in two different calendar years, in a 
medical school registered as maintaining at the time a satisfac- 
tory standard provided that such applicants meet the second and 
third requirements. 

5 Has either received the degree of bachelor or doctor of medi- 
cine from some registered medical school, or a diploma or license 
conferring full right to practise medicine in some foreign country 
unless admitted conditionally to the examinations as specified 
above, in which case all qualifications, including the full period 
of study, the medical degree and the final examinations in 
surgery, ' obstetrics, pathology and diagnosis and therapeutics, 
including practice and materia medicia must be met. The degree 
of bachelor or doctor of medicine shall not be conferred in 
this state before the candidate has filed with the institution con- 
ferring it the certificate of the Regents that before beginning the 
first annual medical course counted toward the degree unless 
matriculated conditionally as hereinafter specified (three years 
before the date of the degree), he had either graduated from a 
registered college or satisfactorily completed a full course in a 
registered academy or high school ; or had a preliminary education 
considered and accepted by the Regents as fully equivalent; or 
held a Regents medical student certificate, granted before this act 
took effect; or had passed Regents examinations as hereinafter 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 49 

provided. A medical school may matriculate conditionally a 
student deficient in not more than one year's academic work or Conditional 
12 counts of the preliminary education requirement, provided the 
name and deficiency of each student so matriculated be filed at 
the Regents office within three months after matriculation, and 
that the deficiency be made up before the student begins the 
second annual medical course counted toward the degree. Stu- 
dents who had matriculated in a New York medical school before Exemption 
June 5, 1890, and students who had matriculated in a New York matriculated 
medical school before May 13, 1895, as having entered before June 1890? Jr^^blf ore 
5, 1890, on the prescribed three years study of medicine, shall be they be'gan^"' '' 
exempt from this preliminary education requirement.^ before^june^s 

A medical student certificate mav be earned without notice to 1^'^° , 

iVj edical 

the Regents of the conditional matriculation either before the student 

^ _ _ certincate 

student begins the second annual medical course counted toward for those 

"^ _ matnculatea 

the degree or two years before the date of the degree for matricu- 
lates in any registered medical school, in the four cases following: 

1 For matriculants prior to May 9, 1893, for any 20 counts, j Before May 
allowing 10 for the preliminaries, not including reading and ciJnte; °^ ^' 
writing. 

2 For matriculants prior to May 13, 1895, for arithmetic, ele- 2 Before May 
mentary English, geography, spelling. United States history, Eng- specified 'sub- 
lish composition and physics, or any 50 counts, allowing 14 for the jo^'count^s-^ 
preliminaries. 

^ For matriculants prior to Tan. i, 1896, for any 12 academics Before Jan. 

^ f - ' ^ ' -^ I, 1896 for 12 

counts. academic 

counts; 

4 For matriculants prior to Jan. i, 1897, for any 24 academic 4 Before Jan. 

counts. academic 

But all matriculants, after Jan. i, 1897, must secure 48'^°""^ 
academic counts, or their full equivalent, before beginning the^|*^'"Jt" '• 

' ^ o o 1897, 4H aca- 

first annual medical course counted toward the degree, unless demic counts 

&> » or full 

admitted conditionally as hereinbefore specified when the deficiency requTr^ed'^* 
must be made up before the student begins the second annual medi- 
cal course counted toward the degree. [As amended by laws of 
1895, ch.626, 1896, ch. Ill, 1901, ch.646, and 1902, ch.24^] 

This act shall take effect immediately, except that the increase in the 
reqnircd course of medical study from three to four years shall take effect 
Jan. I, 1S98, and shall not apply to students who matriculated before that 
date and who received the degree of doctor of medicine before Jan. i, 1902. 

^This exemption refers to the degree only, not to the licensing examination. 



50 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

NOTES ON THE LAW AS TO ADMISSION 

1 For matriculates prior to Jan. i, 1897, medical schools are not required 
to furnish notice of conditional matriculation, and such students may make 
up the full requirement at any time before beginning the second annual 
course counted toward the degree, or two years before the date of the 
degree. 

All matriculates after Jan. i, 1897, must secure 48^ academic counts or 
their full equivalent, before beginning the first annual course counted 
toward the degree unless admitted conditionally, in which case the defi- 
ciency is not to exceed 12 academic counts and must be made up before the 
student begins the second annual course counted toward the degree. 

2 The Regents will accept as fully equivalent to the required academic 
course any one of the following: 

a A certificate of having successfully completed at least one full year's 
course of stud}' in the collegiate department of any college or university, 
registered by the Regents as maintaining a satisfactory standard. 

Certificates should be issued in due form by the president, dean or prin- 
cipal of the institution ; and should be signed under seal or acknowledged 
before a notary, unless the institution is in the University of the State of 
New York and the signature of the officer issuing is well known in the 
Regents office. 

b A certificate of having passed in a registered institution examinations 
equivalent to the full collegiate course of the freshman year or to a com- 
pleted academic course. 

Three full academic years of satisfactory work may be accepted as a high 
school course if completed before Aug. i, 1896, after which date four full 
academic years have been required. 

c Regents pas scar ds for any 48^^ academic counts or any Regents diploma. 

d A certificate of graduation froin any registered g3'mnasium in Germany, 
Austria or Russia. 

^A certificate of the successful completion of a course of five years in 
a registered Italian giiinasio and three years in a liceo. 

f The bachelor's degree in arts or science, or substantial equivalents from 
any registered institution in France or Spain. 

g Any credential from a registered institution or from the government in 
an}' state or country which represents the completion of a course of study 
equivalent to graduation from a registered New York high school or academy 
or from a registered Prussian gymnasium. 

3 Mar. 22, 1898, the Regents approved the following modifications in re- 
quirements for medical student certificates : 

o Partial equivalents. Evidence of completion in a registered school of 
one or more years of satisfactory high school work, and Regents examina- 
tions in subjects representing the balance of the required four year course 
(any 12, 24 or 36 additional counts). 

b Cumulative credit. Regents examinations in second year English or 
English reading, and in third year English- will be accepted as including 
the preceding years in those courses. 



'On the basis of the 1900 syllabus; to be increased 25% for examinations on the basis of the 
190S syllabus, 
'This applies also to law, academic equivalent, dental and veterinary student certificates. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW ^1 

c Date of certificate. Candidates unable to offer certificates of the re- 
quired academic work in a registered institution may present evidence to 
the Regents that the\' had the required preHminar}' education before begin- 
ning the second annual course counted toward the degree, and may on pass- 
ing Regents examinations receive their certificates as of the date when the 
preliminar}- work was completed. 

§ 146 Questions. Each board shall submit to the Regents, as Regents to 
required, lists of suitable questions for thorough examination in examination 

... , , . , . , from questions 

anatomy, physiology and hygiene, chemistry, surgery, obstetrics, submitted by 

. . . . e.xaminers 

pathology and diagnosis, and therapeutics including practice and 
materia medica. From these lists the Regents shall prepare ques- 
tion papers for all these subjects, which at any examination shall 
be the same for all candidates, except that the examination may 
be divided as provided in section 14s and except that in therapeutics, Examination 

^ _ _ ^^ ^ ^ ' same tor all 

practice and materia medica all the questions submitted to any ^-andidates 

'■■ ■' except m 

candidate shall be chosen from those prepared by the board therapeutics 
selected by that candidate, and shall be in harmony with the tenets 
of that school as determined by its state board of medical examiners. 
[As amended by lazvs of 1901, ch.64.6] 
§ 147 Examinations and reports. Examinations for licenses shall Examinations 

" •' '■ m 4 places 4 

be given in at least four convenient places in this state and at^^">fi^ ^^^^1-" 

° f ^ written and 

least four times annually, in accordance with the Regents rules, ^" English 
and" shall be exclusively in writing and in English. Each exami- 
nation shall be conducted by a Regents examiner who shall not ^fner^can" 
be one of the medical examiners. At the close of each examina- "°* conduct 
tion the Regents examiner in charge shall deliver the questions 
and answer papers to the board selected bv each candidate, or Board selected 

bv each can- 

to its dulv authorized committee, and such board, without un- ciidate to re- 

"■ _ port promptly 

necessary delay, shall examine and mark the answers and transmit i" detail to 

Regents with 

to the Regents an official report, signed by its president and secre- recommend- 

tary, stating the standing of each candidate in each branch, his licenses 

general average and whether the board recommends that a license 

be granted. Such report shall include the questions and answers 

and shall be filed in the public records of the University. If a J'h.'"*^^ st^'iy 

■"^ -' before re- 

candidate fails on first examination, he may after not less than examination 
six months' further study, have a second examination without 
fee. If the failure is from illness or other cause satisfactory to 
the Regents they may waive the required six months' study. 

§ 148 Licenses. On receiving from a state board an official re- ^g^fg'^^^^ *° ^^ 
port that an applicant has successfully passed the examinations under^iaf 
and is recommended for license, the Regents shall issue to him, if 
in their judgment he is duly qualified therefor, a license to prac- 



52 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Signatures 



License to 

specify re- 
quirements 
met by 
licensee 



Regents 
may accept 
equivalent 
licenses 



Other ad- 
missible 
credentials 

Fee $io 



Imperfect 
registra- 
tion may 
be legalized 
by Regents 
certificate 



License to be 
recorded in 
Regents 
office 

Records open 
to inspection 



License to be 
registered 
in county 
clerk's 
office before 
practice 



tise medicine. Every license shall be issued by the University 
under seal and shall be signed by each acting medical examiner 
of tlie board selected and by the ofifiicer of the University who ap- 
proved the credential which admitted the candidate to examina- 
tion, and shall state that the licensee has given satisfactory evi- 
dence of fitness as to age, character, preliminary and medical 
education and all other matters required by law, and that after 
full examination he has been found properly qualified to practise. 
Applicants examined and licensed by other state examining 
boards registered by the Regents as maintaining standards not 
lower than those provided by this article and applicants who 
matriculated in a New York State medical school before June 5, 
1890, and who received the degree M. D. from a registered medical 
school before Aug. i, 1895, may without further examination, on 
payment of $10 to the Regents and on submitting such evidence 
as they may require, receive from them an indorsement of their 
licenses or diplomas conferring all rights and privileges of a Re- 
gents license issued after examination. 

If any person, whose registration is not legal because of some 
error , misunderstanding or unintentional omission, shall submit 
satisfactory proof that he had all requirements prescribed by law 
at the time of his imperfect registration and was entitled to be 
legally registered, he may on unanimous recommendation of a state 
board of medical examiners receive from the Regents under seal 
a certificate of the facts which may be registered by any county 
clerk and shall make valid the previous imperfect registration. 

Before any license is issued it shall be numbered and recorded 
in a book kept in the Regents office, and its number shall be noted in 
the license. This record shall be open to public inspection, and 
in all legal proceedings shall have the same weight as evidence 
that is given to a record of conveyance of land. 

§ 149 Registry. Every license to practise medicine shall, before 
the licensee begins practice thereunder, be registered in a book 
kept in the clerk's office of the county where such practice is to 
be carried on, with name, residence, place and date of birth, and 
source, number and date of his license to practise. Before regis- 
tering, each licensee shall file, to be kept in a bound volume in 
the county clerk's office an affidavit of the above facts, and also 
that he is the person named in such license, and had, before 
receiving the same, complied with all requisites as to attendance, 
terms and amount of study and examinations required by law 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 53 

and the rules of the University as preHminary to the conferment 
thereof; that no money was paid for such license, except the regu- 
lar fees paid by all applicants therefor ; that no fraud, misrep- 
resentations or mistake in any material regard was employed by 
any one or occurred in order that such license should be con- 
ferred. Every license, or if lost a copy thereof legally certified 
so as to be admissible as evidence, or a duly attested transcript County 

ri 1I-- r iiiir • • i clerk not to 

of the record 01 its conferment shall before registermg, be ex- register tin 

1 -1 • 1 1 111 1 • • -1 after seeing 

hibited to the county clerk, who, only m case it was issued or license or 

lcs'3,llv ccrti- 

indorsed as a license under seal by the Regents, shall indorse fied copy duly 

... 111 indorsed 

or stamp on it the date and his name preceded by the words : under Uni- 

.,..., 11! versity seal 

"Registered as authority to practise medicine m the clerks 
office of . . . county." The clerk shall thereupon give to every Licensee to 
physician so registered a transcript of the entries in the register fied copy of 
with a certificate under seal that he has filed the prescribed affi- 
davit. The licensee shall pay to the county clerk a total fee of $1 Registration 
for registration, affidavit and certificate. 

§ 150 Registry in another county. A practising physician h a v- Practising 
ing registered a lawful authority to practise medicine in one county, ml^^regSter 
and removing such practice or part thereof to another county, or county o'n 
regularly engaging in practice or opening an office in another prooYof 
county, shall show or send by registered mail to the clerk of such fe^gai^?4is- 
other county, his certificate of registration. If such certificate 
clearly shows that the original registration was of an authority 
issued under seal by the Regents, or if the certificate itself is 
indorsed by the Regents as entitled to registration, the clerk shall 
thereupon register the applicant in the latter county, on receipt 
of a fee of 25 cents, and shall stamp or indorse on such certificate, pee 25c 
the date and his name preceded by the words, " Registered also 
in . . . county," and return the certificate to the applicant. 

§ 151 Certificate presumptive evidence; unauthorized registra- 
tion and license prohibited. Every unrevoked certificate and in- 
dorsement of registry, made as provided in this article, shall be 
presumptive evidence in all courts and places, that the person named Proof of 
therein is legally registered. Hereafter no person shall register to^pracfke 
any authority to practise medicine unless it has been issued registration^ 
or indorsed as a license by the Regents. No such registration 
shall be valid unless the authority registered constituted at the 
time of registration, a license under the laws of the state then 
in force. No diploma or license conferred on a person not 
actually in attendance at the lectures, instruction and examina- 



54- 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPART:MENT 



Diploma or 
license not 
in accord 
with this 
law invalid 
for registra- 
tion 



M. D. 

honorary 

or ad eundem 

prohibited 



This act 
does not 
apply to 

United States 

army and 

navy 

physicians; 

hospital 

medical 

staff; 

registered 
dentists; 
makers of 
surgical ap- 
pliances ; 

foreign 
physicians in 
consultation; 

duly autho- 
rized prac- 
titioners near 
state 
boundary; 



isolated 
cases 



Acts au- 
thorizing 
medical 
degrees 
cattsa honoris 
or ad eundem 
repealed 



Attempting 
to practise 
illegally or 
having any 
part in such 
atteinpt a 
misdemeanor 



tions of the school conferring the same, or not possessed at the 
time of its conferment, of the requirements then demanded of 
medical students in this state as a condition of their being 
licensed so to practise, and no registration not in accordance with 
this article shall be lawful authority to practise medicine, nor 
shall the degree of doctor of medicine be conferred causa honoris 
or ad cundum^ nor if previously conferred shall it be a qualifica- 
tion for such practice. 

§ 152 Construction of this article. This article shall not be con- 
strued to aiTect commissioned medical officers serving in the 
United States army, navy or marine hospital service, while so 
commissioned ; or any one while actually serving on the resident 
medical staff of any legally incorporated hospital ; or any legally 
registered dentist exclusively engaged in practising dentistry ; or 
any manufacturer of artificial eyes, limbs or orthopedic instru- 
ments or trusses in fitting such instruments on persons in need 
thereof ; or any lawfully qualified physician in other states or 
countries meeting legall}' registered physicians in this state in 
consultation ; or any physician residing on a border of a neighbor- 
ing state and duly authorized under the laws thereof to practise 
medicine therein, whose practice extends into this state, and who 
does not open an office or appoint a place to meet patients or 
receive calls within this state ; or any physician duly registered 
in one county called to attend isolated cases in another county, 
but not residing or habitually practising therein. This article 
shall be construed to repeal all acts or parts of acts authorizing 
conferment of any degree in medicine, causa honoris or ad 
cundum;'^ or otherwise than on students duly graduated after satis- 
factory completion of a preliminary and medical course not less 
than that required by this article, as a condition of license. 

§ 153 Penalties and their collection. Any person who, not being 
then lawfully authorized to practise medicine within this state 
and so registered according to law, shall practise medicine within 
this state without lawful registration or in violation of any pro- 
vision of this article ; and any person who shall buy, sell, or 
fraudulently obtain any medical diploma, license, record, or regis- 
tration, or who shall aid or abet such buying, selling or fraudu- 
lently obtaining, or who shall practise medicine under cover of 
any medical diploma, license, record, or registration illegally ob- 
tained, or signed, or issued unlawfully or under fraudulent repre- 



1 So in official edition. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 55 

sentations or mistake of fact in a material regard, or who. after 
conviction of a felony, shall attempt to practise medicine, or shall Conviction of 

^ felony dis- 

so practise, and any person who shall append the letters M. D. qualifies 
to his or her name, or shall assume or advertise the title of doc- Unauthorized 

assumption of 

tor (or any title which shall show or tend to show that the M- d. or title 

doctor a 

person assuming or advertising the same is a practitioner of any misdemeanor 
of the branches of medicine), in such a manner as to convey the 
impression that he or she is a legal practitioner of medicine, or 
of any of its branches without having legally received the medi- 
cal degree, or without having received a license which consti- 
tuted at the time an authority to practise medicine under the 
laws of this state then in force, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, Penalty for 

' c> -' tirst offense 

and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more ^'^P or i™- 

'^ -^ prisonment; 

than $2t5o, or imprisonment for six months for the first offense, ^°r sub- 

, sequent 

and on conviction of any subsequent ofifense, by a fine of not offense 

■' ^ ■' cither or 

more than $500 or imprisonment for not less than one year, or j^^'i/'^ 
by both fine and imprisonment. Any person who shall practise amount 
medicine under a false or assumed name, or who shall falsely False per- 

' -' sonation a 

personate another practitioner of a like or different name, shall felony 

be guilty of a felony. When any prosecution under this article 

is made on the complaint of any incorporated medical society of 

the state, or any county medical society of such county entitled 

to representation in a state society, the fines when collected 

shall be paid to the society making the complaint, and any ex- Expenses 

-^ ^ of society 

cess of the amount of fines so paid over the expense incurred by securing 

■^ _ -^ . prosecution 

the said society in enforcing the medical laws of this state, shall Jo be paid 

•^ ^ from fines 

be paid at the end of the year to the county treasurer. \^As amended 
by lazvs of 1895, ^^.398] 

Practice of dentistry 

Public health /aWj 1893, ch.66i, art.g as amended to June 1902 

§ 160 Definitions. As used in this article, the terms University, Regents*^ 
Regents and physicians have respectively the meanings defined ^'^y^^'^'^^" 
in article 8 of this chapter. Board, where not otherwise limited, ^°^'"'^ 
means the board of dental examiners of the State of New York. 
Registered medical or dental school means a medical or dental Registered 

o vj.v,ixi.tA.i. jnedical or 

school, college or department of a university, registered by the f^hool 
Regents as maintaining a proper educational standard and legally 
incorporated. Examiner, where not otherwise qualified, means a Examiner 
member of the board. State dental society means the Dental Society locilty ^"*^^ 
of the State of New York. [As amended by lazvs of 1895, ch.626, 
1896, c/i.297, 1898, c/i.355 and 1901, c/i.215] 



56 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Composition 
of State 
Dental 
Society 



Annua! 
meeting 



Officers 



Permanent 
members 



Honorary 
members 



Existing 

district 

dental 

societies 

continued 



Formation 
of new 
societies 



§ i6i State dental society. The Dental Society of the State of 
New York is continued, and shall be composed of eight delegates 
from each district society divided into four classes of two dele- 
gates, each to be elected annually, and of two delegates from 
each incorporated dental school of the state to be elected an- 
nually. The state dental society shall annually meet on the 
second Wednesday of May, or at such other time and at such 
place as may be determined on in the bylaws of the society or by 
resolution, at the preceding annual meeting. Twenty members 
shall be a quorum. The society shall elect annually a president, 
vice president, secretary and treasurer, who shall hold their 
offices for one year, and until others shall be chosen in their 
places, and may elect not more than i6 permanent members at 
any annual meeting from among eminent dentists of the state, 
who shall have all the privileges of delegate members. The 
society may elect honorary members from any state or county 
not eligible to regular membership, who shall not be entitled to 
vote or hold any office in the society. [As amended by lams of 
1901, ch.2i^] 

§ 162 District dental societies. The existing district dental 
societies are continued. In any judicial district in which a dis- 
trict dental society is not now incorporated, 15 or more dentists 
of such district authorized to practise dentistry- in this state may 
become a district dental society of such district, by publishing 
a call for a meeting of the dentists of the district to be held at a 
time and place mentioned therein within the district, in at least 
one newspaper in each county of the district, at least once a 
week for at least four weeks immediately preceding the time 
when such meeting is to be held, and by meeting at the time and 
place specified in such notice with such dentists authorized to 
practise dentistry in the district as may respond to such call, 
and by making and filing with the secretary of the state dental 
society a certificate, to be executed and acknowledged by the 
dentists so meeting, or by at least 15 of them, which shall set 
forth that such meeting has been held pursuant to such notice, 
the corporate name of the society, which shall be the district 
dental society of the judicial district where located, the names 
and places of residence of the officers of the society for the first 
year, or until the first annual meeting, which officers shall be 
a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer, the time and 
place of the annual meeting of the society, the general objects 
and purposes of the association and the names of eight delegates 



TT-IE UNIVERSITY LAW 57 

to the state society divided into four classes of two delegates 
each, to hold office until the first, second, third and fourth annual 
meeting thereafter, respectively. And thereon the persons execut- 
ing such certificate and all other dentists in good standing and 
authorized to practise dentistry in such district, who shall subscribe 
to its bylaws, shall be a corporation by the name expressed in such 
certificate. [As amended by laws of 1901, ch.21^^ 

§ 163 Powers of dental societies. Every licensed and registered 
dentist in the judicial district in which such society is formed, 
shall be eligible to membership in the district society of the district 
where he resides or practises dentistry. Every district society shall ^°^|J^ f"*^ 
at every annual meeting choose two delegates to the state dental ^^^^^ 
society, each to serve four years, and may fill all vacancies occur- societies 
ring in their respective delegations in the state society. Every dis- 
trict dental society shall at its annual meeting appoint not less than 
three nor more than five censors to continue in office for one year 
and until others are chosen, who shall constitute a district board 
of censors. The dental societies of the respective districts of the 
state shall have power to make all needful bylaws not inconsistent 
with the laws of this state for the management of their affairs and 
property and the admission and expulsion of members ; providing, 
that no bylaw of any district society shall be repugnant to or incon- 
sistent with the bylaws of the state society. Said societies may 
purchase and hold real and personal estate for the purposes of their 
incorporation ; provided that the property of a district society shall 
not exceed in value $5000, and the property of the state society shall 
not exceed in value $25,000. [As amended by lazvs of 1901, ch.2is] 

§ 164 Licentiates. Only the following persons shall be deemed 
licensed to practise dentistry : 

1 Those duly licensed and resristered as dentists in this state What 

■' ° , constitutes 

prior to the first day of August, 1895, pursuant to the laws in force license to 
at the time of their license and registration. 

2 Those duly licensed and registered after the first day of August, 
1895, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter. [As amended by 
lazvs of 1895, ch.626 and 1901, ch.2is] 

§ 165 State board of dental examiners. The existing division of 
the State Board of Dental Examiners shall be divided into four ^°^^ ^^^^^^^^ 
classes and their terms of office shall continue except that said terms JxSnfners 
shall expire on the 31st day of July in each year. Before the day^^f^''^^ 
when the official terms of the members of any of said classes shall 
expire, the Regents shall appoint their successors, to serve for thej^^rg 



58 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Examiners 
appointed 
by Regents 
from nom- 
inees of 
State Dental 
Society 



Regents to 
fill vacan- 
cies 



Each ap- 
pointee to be 
from same 
judicial 
district as his 
predecessor 

Board to 
meet on call 
of Regents 

Appointees 
must hold 
dental degree 
and have 
practised 
dentistry in 
this state 
not less 
than 5 years 

Officer 
in dental 
college 
ineligible 
Examiner 
may be 
removed for 
cause 



Candidate 
must sub- 
mit satisfac- 
tory evidence 
as to: 
age, char- 
acter, pre- 
liminary 
education 



Candidate 
must hold 
dental degree 
M. D, or 
foreign 
license to 
practise 



term of four years from said day. Such appointment shall be made 
from nominations in number twice the number of the outgoing class 
made by such society to the Regents prior to the second Tuesday 
in June of each year. In default of such nominations, the Regents 
shall appoint such examiners from the legally qualified dentists in 
the state belonging to the state dental society. The Regents, in 
the same manner, shall also fill vacancies in the board that may 
occur. All nominations and appointments shall be so made that 
every vacancy in the board shall be filled by a resident of the same 
judicial district in which the last incumbent of the office resided. 
The board shall elect at its annual meeting from its members a presi- 
dent and a secretary and shall hold one or more meetings each year 
pursuant to call of the Regents. No person shall be appointed an 
examiner unless he shall have received a dental degree from a body 
lawfully entitled to confer the same, and in good standing at the 
time of its conferment, and shall have been engaged within the state 
during not less than five years prior to his appointment in the actual 
and lawful practice of dentistry. Nor shall any person connected 
with a dental school as professor, trustee or instructor be eligible 
to such appointment. Cause being shown before them the Regents 
may remove an examiner from office on proven charges of m- 
efficiency, incompetency, immorality or unprofessional misconduct. 
[As amended by lazvs of 1895, ch.626, 1896, ch.2gy, and 1901, 
rA.215] 

§ 166 Examinations. The Regents shall admit to examination 
any candidate who shall pay the fee herein prescribed [see §i69a] 
and submit satisfactory evidence, verified by oath if required, that 
he: (i) is more than 21 years of age; (2) is of good moral char- 
acter; (3) has a preliminary education equivalent to graduation 
from a four year high school course registered by the Regents, or 
an education accepted by the Regents as fully equivalent ; (4) sub- 
sequently to receiving such preliminary education either has been 
graduated in course, with a dental degree from a registered dental 
school, or else, having been graduated in course from a registered 
medical school with the degree of doctor of medicine, has pursued 
thereafter a course of special study of dentistry for at least two 
years in a registered dental school, and received therefrom its degree 
of doctor of dental surgery, or else holds a diploma or license con- 
ferring full right to practise dentistry in some foreign country and 
granted by some registered authority. Provided that any person 
who then being a bona fide student of dentistry in this state under 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 59 

private preceptorship was entitled to file on or before the 31st day 
of July 1895, with the secretary of the State Dental Society a cer- 
tificate of study under private preceptorship may at any time prior 
to the first day of January 1904, upon sworn proof of such fact file 
such a certificate with the Regents and thereupon be admitted to 
examination before the board. Any member of the board may in- ^ay^^veSi- 
quire of any applicant for examination concerning his qualifications late's^cTuiii- 
and may take testimony of any one in regard thereto, under oath, fications 
which he is hereby empowered to administer. [As amended by laws 
of 1895, ch.626, 1896, cA.297, 1901, ch.2i^ and 1902, ch.210] 

§ 167 Degrees. No degree in dentistry shall be conferred in 
this state except the degree of doctor of dental surgery. Said degree 
shall not be conferred upon any one unless he shall have satis- 
factorily completed a course of at least three years in a registered Requirements 
dental school, or having been graduated in course from a registered degree 
medical school v^'ith the degree of doctor of medicine shall have pur- 
sued satisfactorily thereafter a course of special study of dentistry 
for at least two years in a registered dental school ; nor shall said 
degree be conferred upon any one, unless prior to matriculation in 
the institution conferring his professional degree, or before begin- 
ning the second course of lectures counted toward such degree he 
shall have filed with said institution a Regents certificate that he has 
received the required preliminary education evidenced as aforesaid ; 
provided further, however, that the Regents may confer upon all per- 
sons who shall have received the degree of master of dental surgery 
imder the laws of this state, prior to the taking effect of this act, the 
degree of doctor of dental surgery in lieu of said master's degree. 
[As amended by laws of 1895, ch.626, 1896, (7/2.297 <^"^ 1901, 
ch.2i^] 

§ 168 Licenses. On certification by the Board of Dental Exam- candidate 
iners that a candidate has successfully passed its examination and board^to ^ 
is competent to practise dentistry, the Regents shall issue to him [fcenll 
their license so to practise pursuant to the rules established by them. 
On the recommendation of the board, the Regents may also, with- 
out the examination hereinbefore provided for, issue their license mivTicense 
to any applicant therefor who shall furnish proof satisfactory to practft^oner 
them that he has been duly graduated from a registered dental g^°™ °j.^®^ 
school and has been thereafter lawfully and reputably engaged in 5^°';^"j^g' 
such practice for six years next preceding his application ; or who cations not 
holds a license to practise dentistry in any other of the United States New\ork 
granted by a state board of dental examiners, indorsed by the Dental fp^^ifd^nts 
Society of the State of New York ; provided, that in either case b^board 



6o 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



to have 
qualifications 
equivalent to 
New York 
requirements 

License so 
issued to 
state reasons 
on face 

Unregistered 
practising 
dentists to 
register 
in county 
clerk's office 



May register 
only on show- 
ing proof of 
legal right 
to practise; 
making 
affidavit of 
identity; 
of compliance 
with prelim- 
inary re- 
quirements, 
and of ab- 
sence of 
fraud or 
bribery in 
procuring 
license 



County 
clerk to 
give certifi- 
cate of regis- 
tration 

Certificate 
and license 
to be pre- 
sumptive 
evidence 



Clerk's 

fee $1 



Practising 
dentist may 
register in 
another 
county on 
proof of 
existing 
legal registra- 
tion 



Fee 



his preliminary and professional education shall have been not lese 
than that required in this state. Every license so issued shall state 
on its face the grounds on which it is granted and the applicant may 
be required to furnish his proofs on affidavit. [As amended by laws 
of 1895, ch.626, 1896, cA.297, 1898, (:/f.355 and igoi, ch.21^] 

§ 169 Registration. Every person practising dentistry in this 
state and not lawfully registered before this section takes effect 
shall register in the office of the clerk of the county where his 
place of business is located, in a book kept by the clerk for such 
purpose, his name, age, office and postoffice address, date and num- 
ber of his license to practise dentistry and the date of such regis- 
tration, which registration he shall be entitled to make only upon 
showing to the county clerk his license or a duly authenticated 
copy thereof, and making an affidavit stating name, age, birthplace, 
the number of his license and the date of its issue; that he is the 
identical person named in the license ; that before receiving the 
same he complied with all the preliminary requirements of this 
statute and the rules of the Regents and board as to the terms and 
the amount of study and examination ; that no money, other than 
the fees prescribed by this statute and said rules, was paid directly 
or indirectly for such license, and that no fraud, misrepresentation 
or mistake in a material regard was employed or occurred in order 
that such license should be conferred. The county clerk shall pre- 
serve such affidavit in a bound volume and shall issue to every 
licentiate duly registering and making such affidavit a certificate 
of registration in his county, which shall include a transcript of the 
registration. Such transcript and the license may be offered as 
presumptive evidence in all courts of the facts stated therein. The 
county clerk's fee for taking such registration and affidavit and 
issuing such certificate, shall be $1. A practising dentist having 
registered a lawful authority to practise dentistry in one county 
of the state and removing such practice or part thereof to another 
county, or regularly engaging in practice or opening an office in 
another county, shall show or send by registered mail to the clerk 
of such other county his certificate of registration. If such certifi- 
cate clearly shows that the original registration was of an authority 
issued under seal by the Regents, or if the certificate itself is 
indorsed by the Regents as entitled to registration, the clerk shall 
thereupon register the applicant in the latter county, on receipt of 
a fee of 25 cents, and shall stamp or indorse on such certificate, the 
date and his name, preceded by the words, " registered also in , , , 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 6l 

county," and return the certificate to the applicant. Any person 
who having lawfully registered as aforesaid shall thereafter change 
his name in any lawful manner shall register the new name with 
marginal note of the former name ; and shall note upon the 
margin of the former registration the fact of such change and 
a cross reference to the new registration. A county clerk who 
knowingly shall make or suffer to be made upon the book of 
registry of dentists kept in his office any other entry than is pro- 
vided for in this section shall be liable to a penalty of $50 to be 
recovered by the State Dental Society in a suit in any court 
having jurisdiction. [As amended by laivs of 1895, ch.626, 1896, 
ch.2gy and 1901, ch.21^] 

^ § 169a Examination fees. Every applicant for license to prac- License 
tise dentistry shall pay a fee of not more than $25. From the fees '^^ ^^ 
provided by this article the Regents may pay all proper expenses Regents to 
incurred by them under its provisions, and any surplus at the fmmfee^^^^ 
end of any academic year shall be paid to the society nominat- 
ing the examiners to defray its expenses incurred under the law. 
[As amended by lazvs of 1895, ch.626, 1896, cli.2g'/ and 1901, 
c/i.2is] 

§ 169b Revocation of licenses. If any practitioner of dentistry Practitioner 
be charged under oath before the board with unprofessional or under oath 
immoral conduct, or with gross ignorance, or inefficiency in his ness, to be 
profession, the board shall notify him to appear before it at an ap- by board 
pointed time and place, with counsel, if he so desires, to answer 
said charges, furnishing to him a copy thereof. Upon the report 
of the board that the accused has been guilty of unprofessional if board 

1 . . -- . reports 

or immoral conduct, or that he is grossly ignorant or mefficient charges 

° -^ ^ true. Regents 

in his profession, the Regents may suspend the person so charged may suspend 

. . . or revoke 

from the practice of dentistry for a limited season, or may revoke license 
his license. Upon the revocation of any license, the fact shall be 
noted upon the records of the Regents and the license shall be Registra- 
marked as canceled, of- the date of its revocation. Upon pre- canceled 
sentation of a certificate of such cancelation to the clerk of any of certificate 
county wherein the licentiate may be registered, said clerk shall of license 
note the date of the cancelation on the register of dentists and conviction 
cancel the registration. A conviction of felony shall forfeit a forfel?"^ 
license to practise dentistry, and upon presentation to the Re- ^''^^"se 

^ See also laws of 1905, chapter 700. 
2 So in official condition. 



62 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Practise 
of dentistry 
after convic- 
tion of felony 
a misde- 
meanor. If 
conviction 
reversed, 
license again 
Ulcerative 



Law permits 
practice on 
models, 
student 
assistance, 
and treatment 
by licensed 
physicians 



No unlicensed 

dental 

operation 



Unlicensed 
practise a 
misdemeanor 



$50 fine for 
first offense; 
for later 
offense $100 
fine, or im- 
prisonment 
or both 



gents or a county clerk by any public officer or officer of a den- 
tal society of a certified copy of a court record showing that 
a practitioner of dentistry had been convicted of felony, that 
fact shall be noted on the record of license and clerk's register, 
and the license and registration shall be marked canceled. Any 
person who, after conviction of a felony shall practise dentistry 
in this state, shall be subject to all the penalties prescribed for 
the unlicensed practice of dentistry [see §i69d], providing that if 
such conviction be subsequently reversed upon appeal and the 
accused acciuitted or discharged, his license shall become again 
operative from the date of such acquittal or discharge. [As amended 
by lazvs of 1895, ch.626, 1896, ch.2gy and 1901, eh.2ic^] 

§ 169c Construction of this article. This article shall not be 
construed to prohibit an unlicensed person from performing merely 
mechanical work upon inert matter in a dental office or labora- 
tory, or the student of a licentiate from assisting the latter in 
his performance of dental operations while in the presence and 
under the personal supervision of his instructor ; or a student in 
an incorporated dental school or college from performing opera- 
tions for purposes of clinical study under the supervision and 
instruction of preceptors ; or a duly licensed physician from 
treating diseases of the mouth or performing operations in oral 
surgery. But nothing in this article shall be construed to permit 
the performance of independent dental operations by an unli- 
censed person under cover of the name of a registered practi- 
tioner or in his office. Nor shall anything in this article be 
construed to require of students already matriculated in registered 
dental or medical schools when this act shall take effect, or stu- 
dents matriculated in such schools before the first day of Janu- 
ary, 1905, any other or higher qualification for the dental license 
or degree than was demanded by existing laws as interpreted by 
the regulations of the Regents at the date of their matriculation. 
[As amended by lazvs of 1895, ch.626 and 1901, f/7.215] 

§ i69d Penalties, a A person who, in any county of this state, 
practises or holds himself out to the public as practising den- 
tistry, not being at the times of said practice or holding out a 
dentist licensed to practise as such in this state and registered 
in the office of the clerk of such county pursuant to the general 
laws regulating the practice of dentistry, is guilty of a misde- 
meanor, and punishable upon conviction of a first offense by a 
fine of not less than $50, and upon conviction of a subsequent 



THE UNIVKRSITY LAW 63 

offense bv a fine of not less than $ioo, or by imprisonment for 
not less than two months, or by both such fine and imprison- 
ment. Any violation of this section by a person theretofore con- violation 

,-',, ... -,. . .. by convicted 

victed under the then existmg laws oi this state ot practising illegal prac- 
dentistry without license or registration shall be included in the 
term a subsequent offense. 

Every conviction of unlawful practice or holding out subse- 
quent to a first conviction thereof shall be a conviction of a 
second offense. Every practitioner of dentistry must display in 
a conspicuous place upon the house or in the office wherein he 
practises his full name. If there are more chairs than one in any 
office or dental parlor the name of the practitioner must be dis- 
played on or by said chair in plain sight of the patient. Any per- Nondispiay 

, 111 • 1 • • 1 1 • 1 • 1 • of name a 

son who shall practise dentistry without aisplaymg his name misdemeanor 
as herein prescribed ; and any proprietor, owner or manager of 
a dental office, establishment or parlor who shall fail so to dis- 
play or cause to be displayed the name of each person employed 
as a practising dentist or practising as a dentist in said office, 
establishment or parlor, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and 
punishable upon a first conviction by a fine of $50 and upon $50 fine 
every subsequent conviction by a fine of not less than $100 or conviction; 
by imprisonment for not less than 60 days or by both fine and convlctLn 

Sioo fine, or 
imprisonment. imprisonment, 

h A person shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon Misd°emeanor 
every conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less by"fin^^^m. 
than $250 or by imprisonment for not less than six months, or by orbo'thlTo^ 
both fine and imprisonment, who 

1 Shall sell or barter or offer to sell or barter any diploma or i .Seii or 

. . offer to sell 

document conferring or purporting to confer any dental degree real or fraud- 
or any certificate or transcript made or purporting to be made credential; 
pursuant to the laws regulating the license and registration of 
dentists ; or, 

2 Shall purchase or procure by barter any such diploma, cer- 2 Procure or 
tificate or transcript with intent that the same shall be used as dental ^'^"'^"'^^ 
evidence of the qualifications to practise dentistry, of any person for fraud ; 
other than the one upon whom it was lawfully conferred, or in 

fraud of the laws regulating such practice ; or, 

3 Shall, with fraudulent intent, alter in a material regard any 3 Fraudu- 

1 , . , . - . lently alter 

such diploma, certificate or transcript; or, credential; 

4 Shall use or attempt to use any such diploma, certificate or 4 Use or try 
transcript which has been purchased, fraudulently issued, counter- credential 
feited or materially altered either as a license or color of license obtained, 

issued or 
altered ; 



64 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



5 Practise 
under 
assumed 
name; 

6 Assume 
without 
authority 
dental degree 
or its sym- 
bols, or any 
title or sym- 
bol with 
fraudulent 
intent 



7 Personate 
another or 
abet false 
personation 



Perjury in 
securing 
license 
punishable 
by lo years' 
imprison- 
ment 



Jurisdiction 



to practise dentistry or in order to procure registration as a 
dentist ; or, 

5 Shall practise dentistry under a false or assumed name; or, 

6 Shall assume the degree of bachelor of dental surgery, doctor 
of dental surgery or master of dental surgery, or shall append the 
letters B. D. S., D. D. S., M. D. S. to his name, not having been 
duly conferred upon him by diploma from some college, school 
or board of examiners legally empowered to confer the same, the 
right to assume said titles ; or shall assume any title or append 
or prefix any letters to his name with the intent to represent 
falsely that he has received a medical or dental degree or 
license; or 

7 Shall falsely personate another at any examination, held by 
the Regents or by the board, of the preliminary or professional 
education of candidates for dental students certificates, dental 
degrees or licenses, or who shall induce another to make or aid 
and abet in the making of such false personation, or who shall 
knowingly avail himself of the benefit of such false personation, 
or who shall knowingly or negligently make falsely any certifi- 
cate required by the Regents or board in connection with their 
examinations. 

c Any person who in any affidavit or examination required of 
an applicant for examination, license or registration under the 
laws, regulating the practice of dentistry, or under the laws, 
ordinances or regulations governing the Regents examinations 
of the preliminary education required for a dental student's cer- 
tificate shall make wilfully a false statement in a material regard 
shall be guilty of perjury, and punishable upon conviction thereof 
by imprisonment not exceeding lo years. 

d All courts of special sessions and police justices sitting as 
courts of special sessions shall have jurisdiction in the first 
instance to hear and determine all charges of misdemeanors 
mentioned in this act committed within their local jurisdiction, 
and to impose all the penalties provided for misdemeanors in 
this statute ; provided, however, that the power of said courts 
and justices to hear and determine such charges shall be divested, 
if before the commencement of a trial before such court or justice, 
a grand jury shall present an indictment against the accused per- 
son for the same ofifense, or if a justice of the Supreme Court or a 
county judge of the county shall grant a certificate in the manner 
j provided by law in cases of misdemeanor, that it is reasonable 
that such charge be prosecuted by indictment. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 65 

e All fines, penalties and forfeitures of bail imposed or col- Fines, pen- 
lected on account of violations of the laws resiilatins: the prac- accrue^ to 

State Dental 

tice of dentistry must be paid to the State Dental Society. Said Society 
society may prefer complaints for violations of the law regulat- 
ing the practice of dentistry before any court, tribunal or magis- state society 

1 • • • 1 • • 1 r 1 t • rr may prefer 

trate having jurisdiction thereoi and may by its orncers, counsel complaints 

, -I- -11 ir ir i ^'^'^ violations 

and agents aid in presenting the law and facts before such court, of law and 
tribunal or magistrate in any proceeding instituted by it. [As evidence 
amended by laws of 1895, ch.626, 1898, c/2.35S, 1901, ch.21^] 

§ 2 Ch.152 of the laws of 1868 is hereby repealed. 

§ 3 This act shall take efifect immediately. 



Schedule of laws repealed 

Lazvs of Chapter Section 

1868 152 All of §7 after and including the words 

" whose duty it shall be," and all of 

§8, 9, 10 

Laws of Chapter Section 

All 1889 337 All 

All 1892 528 All 

All 



Exemption of matriculates from increased preliminary requirements 

Laws of 1897, ch.247 
§ I Any student who had matriculated in a registered dental Preliminary 

,,.,T r> ^ • T -11 • requirements 

school prior to Jan. i, 1590, in compliance with the requirements of dental 

J ,. . * , . , . , law not retro- 

as to preliminary education announced in the catalogue, pros- active 
pectus or announcement of such dental school for that year shall 
on completing his full course of professional study, passing satis- 
factory examinations thereon, and in all other respects comply- 
ing with the requirements of the faculty and trustees of said den- 
tal school, be entitled to receive his degree in dentistry from said 
dental school without other requirements as to preliminary edu- 
cation, and shall on application be certified by the Regents to the 
State Board of Dental Examiners for examination for license to 
practise dentistry ; providing that said application shall in all re- 
spects, other than preliminary education, meet the present require- 
ments of said Regents and said board. 



1870 


331 


1879 


540 


I88I 


376 



66 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Matriculates in a registered dental school : 

1 Before Jan. i, 1896, are exempt from the preliminary education require- 
ment for degrees and for admission to the licensing examinations. 

2 Between Jan. i, 1896, and Jan. i, 1897, must offer 24 academic counts 
or three years of satisfactory high school work or their equivalent before 
l.icginning the second annual course counted toward the degree. 

3 Before Jan. i, 1905. must offer 36 academic counts or three years of 
satisfactory high schol work or their equivalent before beginning the second 
annual course counted toward the degree. After Jan i, 1905, any 481 aca- 
demic counts or four years of satisfactory high school work or their 
equivalent. Partial equivalents may be accepted. 



U niversity 
Regents 

Board 



Veterinary- 

medical 

examiner 

Veterinary 
school 



Veterinary 
medicine 



Veterinarian 



Registration 
under this 
law neces- 
sary after 
July I, 1895 

Conviction 
of felony 
disqualifies 



Unregistered 
but other- 
wise qualified 
practitioner 
may secure 
re-Tistration 
through 
board and 
Regents 



Practice of veterinary medicine 

Public health law, 1893, ch.66i, ari.io, as amended to June 1901 

§ 170 Definitions. As used in this article: 

1 University means University of the State of New York. 

2 Regents means Board of Regents of the University of the State 
of New York. 

3 Board means a board of veterinary medical examiners of the 
State of New York. 

4 Veterinary medical examiner means a member of a board of 
veterinary medical examiners of the State of New York. 

5 Veterinary school means any veterinary school, college or de- 
partment of a university, registered by the Regents as maintain- 
ing a proper veterinary medical standard and as legally incorporated. 

6 Veterinary medicine means veterinary medicine and surgery, 
or any branch thereof. 

7 Veterinarian means veterinary physician and surgeon. [As 
amended by lazvs of 1895, c/i.86o] 

§ 171 Qualifications for practice. No person shall practise vet- 
erinary medicine after July i, 1895, unless previously registered 
and legally authorized, unless licensed by the Regents and regis- 
tered as required by this article ; nor shall any person practise 
veterinary medicine who has ever been convicted of a felony by 
any court, or whose authority to practise is suspended or revoked 
by the Regents on recommendation of a state board. Any gradu- 
ate of a veterinary school, who received his degree prior to July 
I, 1895, and has practised veterinary medicine in some county 
in New York State, but who failed to register in the veterinary 
medical register in the county in which he so practised, may. 
on unanimous recommendation of the State Board of Veterinary 

1 On the basis of the 1900 syllabus ; to l^e increased 25% for examinations 
on the basis of the 1905 Syllabus, 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW &J 

Medical Examiners, receive from the Regents a certificate which 
shall entitle him to register as a veterinary practitioner in the 
county of his residence or practise at any time within two months 
after the passage of this act. Any person a citizen of the United 
States and of the State of New York who matriculated in a Exemptions 
reputable veterinary medical school prior to Jan. i, 1895, and 
who received his degree therefrom prior to Jan. i, 1897, or any 
person who was engaged in the practice of veterinary medicine 
prior to the year 1886, shall be admitted to the veterinary examina- 
tion for license to practise, as conducted by the Regents of the 
University of the State of New York. \As amended by laws of 
1895, ch.S6o, 1896, ch.S40 and 1901, c/7.231] 

§ 172 State board of veterinary medical examiners. There shall i^'Jrl toliSid 
be a board of veterinary medical examiners of five members, each eac?f ^ ^^^^^ 
of whom shall hold office for five years from Aug. i of the year 
in which appointed. The New York State Veterinary Medical Refents^fro^ 
Society shall at each annual meeting nominate twice the number ofstatl^ 
of examiners to be appointed that year on the board. The names sodety^"^^ 
of such nominees shall be annually transmitted under seal by the 
president and secretary prior to May i, to the Regents who shall, 
prior to Aug. i, appoint from such lists the examiners required 
to fill any vacancies that will occur from expiration of term onJ^^F| 
July 31. Any other vacancy, however occurring, shall likewise J"^^' 31 
be filled by the Regents for the unexpired term. Each nominee flii^^^acfn-*° 
before appointment, shall furnish to the Regents proof that he '^'^^ 
has received a degree in the^ veterinary medicine from [^] regis- j^eUgibie 
tered veterinary medical school and that he has legally practised veterinary 
veterinary medicine in this state for at least five years. If nOprfctfce"n 
nominees are legally before them from the society, the Regents years ^ ^ ^ 
may appoint from members in good standing in the veterinary 
profession without restriction. The Regents may remove any mly^remove 
examiner for misconduct, incapacity or neglect of duty, [^^f^ cause 
amended by lazvs of 1895, cJi.860] 

§ 173 Certificate of appointment; oath; powers. Every veterin- Examiners 
ary medical examiner shall receive a certificate of appointment from tificates of 

■^ '^ ^ appointment 

the Resfents, and before beginning his term of office shall file from Regents 

S' ' » & and to take 

with the Secretary of State the constitutional oath of office. The o^th of office 
board, or any committee thereof, may take testimony and proofs Board may 
concerning all matters within its jurisdiction. The board may, mony 
subiect to the Regents' approval, make all bylaws and rules not Shaii make 

J ^ ^_£ ^ ; rules subject 

to Regents' 

1 So in official edition. approval 



68 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Restriction 



Regents to 
pay expenses 
from fees 



Surplus to 
be divided 
among ex- 
aminers 
pro rata 



Board 

to elect 
officers 

To meet on 
call of 
Regents 

Majority a 
quorum 



Committees 



Candidate 
must pay 
fee and 
submit satis- 
factory evi- 
dence as to: 
age; char- 
acter; pre- 
liminary 
education; 
professional 
education; 
veterinary 
degree 



Prerequisites 
to degree : 
graduation 
from regis- 
tered college 
or high 
school; or 
education 
fully equiva- 
lent thereto; 
or equivalent 
Regents exam 
inations 



inconsistent with law needed in performing its duties, but no 
bylaws or rules by which more than a majority vote is required 
for any specified action by the board shall be amended, suspended 
or repealed by a smaller vote than that required for the action 
thereunder. [As amended by lazvs of 1895, c/2.860] 

^ § 174 Expenses. From the fees provided by this article the Re- 
gents may pay all proper expenses incurred by its provisions, 
except compensation to veterinary medical examiners, and any 
surplus at the end of the academic year shall be apportioned among 
the members of the board pro rata according to the number of 
candidates whose answer papers have been marked by each. [As 
amended by laivs of 1895, c/l86o] 

§ 175 Officers; meetings; quorum; committees. The board 
shall annually elect from its members a president and secretary for 
the academic year, and shall hold one or more meetings each year 
pursuant to the call of the Regents. At any meeting a majority 
shall constitute a quorum ; but questions prepared by the board 
may be grouped and edited, or answer papers of candidates may 
be examined and marked by committees duly authorized by the 
board and by the Regents. [As amended by lazvs of 1895, ch.86o] 

§ 176 Admission to examination. The Regents shall admit to 
examination any candidate who pays a fee of $10 and submits satis- 
factorv evidence, verified bv oath if required, that he (i) is more 
than 21 years of age; (2) is of good, moral character; (3) has the 
general education required in all cases after July i, 1897, pre- 
liminary to receiving a degree in veterinary medicine; (4) has 
studied veterinary medicine not less than three full years, includ- 
ing three satisfactory courses, in three different academic years, 
in the veterinary medical school registered as maintaining at the 
time a satisfactory standard; (5) has received a degree as veterin- 
arian from some registered veterinary medical school. The de- 
gree in veterinary medicine shall not be conferred in this state 
before the candidate has filed with the institution conferring it, 
the certificate of the Regents that three years before the date of 
the degree, or before or during his first year of veterinary medi- 
cal study in this state, he has either graduated from a registered 
college or satisfactorily completed an academic course in a regis- 
tered academy or high school; or has a preliminary education 
considered and accepted by the Regents as fully equivalent ; or 
has passed Regents examinations equivalent to the minimum re- 



^ See also laws of 190S, chapter 700. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 69 

quirement in such preliminary education -for candidates for medi- 
cal or dental degrees in this state. Students who had matriculated Graduates 

before July i, 

in a veterinary medical school before Oct. i, 1895, shall be iSqs who 

. . • 1 1 matriculated 

exempted from this prelimmary education requirement, provided before Oct. i. 
the degree be conferred before July i, 1898. The Regents may, fro^pre- 
in their discretion, accept as the equivalent for any part of the third 
and fourth requirements, evidence of five or more years' reputable Equivalent 
practice in veterinary medicine, provided that such substitution be tionai"e- 
specified in the license. [As amended by laivs of 1895, c/i.86o] 

^177 Ouestions. Each member of the board shall submit to the Regents to 

" ' ' ^ _ _ prepare 

Regents, as required, lists of suitable questions for thorough ex-examina- 
amination in comparative anatomy, physiology and hygiene, in ^^^^1°^^^^^ 
chemistry and veterinary surgery, obstetrics, pathology and diagnosis ^y examiners 
and therapeutics, including practice and materia medica. From 
these lists the Regents shall prepare question papers for all these 
subjects, which at any examinations shall be the same for all candi- 
dates. [As amended by laws of 1895, c/l86o] 

S 178 Examinations and reports. Examination for license shall Examina- 

' _ _ tions in 4 

be given in at least four convenient places in this state and at places 4 times 

"-" ^ yearly; to be 

least four times annually, in accordance with the Regents rules, wrkten and 
and shall be exclusively in writing and in English. Each exami- 
nation shall be conducted by a Regent^ examiner, who shall not be Supervising 
one of the veterinary medical examiners. At the close of each to be member 
examination, the Regents examiner in charge shall deliver the ques- 
tions and answer papers to the board, or to its duly authorized Board to 
committee, and such board, Avithout unnecessary delay, shall exam- promptly 

- T-i "^ rr • 1 results to 

me and mark the answers and transmit to tne Regents an otiicial Regents, 

. . . , 1 • r '^'^i*'^ recom- 

report, signed by its president and secretary, stating the standing 01 mendations 
each candidate in each branch, his general average and whether 
the board recommends that a license be granted. Such report shall 
include the questions and answers and shall be filed in the public 
records of the Universitv. If a candidate fails on his first examina- Six months 

studv before 

tion. he may, after not less than six months' further study, have a reexamination 
second examination without fee. If the failure is from illness or 
other cause satisfactory to the Regents, they may waive the required Extra study 
six months' study. [As amended by laws of 1895, ch.S6o] Taull 

8 170 Licenses. On receiving from the state board an official Licenses to 

" ' ^ "^ , be issued 

report that an applicant has successfully passed the examination by^umversity 
and is recommended for license, the Regents shall issue to him, if l^^%f^^^f^^^ , 

^^ ^^ ' "" "~^^ examiners 

1 So in official edition, and officer 

who admitted 



70 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



to examina- 
tion 



Regents 
may accept 
licenses 
granted 
before July i, 
1897, by 
other state 
boards 
maintaining 
an equal 
standard; 

also licenses 
or diplomas 
of candidates 
matriculated 
before July i, 
1896 and 
graduated be- 
fore July I, 
1897 

Fee $10 

Imperfect 
registration 
may be 
legalized by 
Regents cer- 
tificate 



License to 
be recorded 
in Regents 
office before 
issue 

Records open 
to inspection 



License to be 
registered in 
county clerk's 
ofTfice before 
practice 



in their judgment he is duly quaHfied therefor, a license to practise 
veterinary medicine. Every license shall be issued by the University 
under seal and shall be signed by each acting veterinary medical 
examiner of the board and by the officer of the University who 
approved the credential which admitted the candidate to examina- 
tion, and shall state that the licensee has given satisfactory evidence 
of fitness as to age, character, preliminary and veterinary medical 
education and all other matters required by law, and that after full 
examination he has been found duly qualified to practise. Applicants 
examined and licensed before July i, 1897, by other state examining 
boards registered by the Regents as maintaining standards not lower 
than those provided by this article, and applicants who matriculate 
in a New York State veterinary medical school before July i, 1896, 
and who receive the veterinary degree from a registered veterinary 
medical school before July i, 1897, may without further examina- 
tion, on payment of $10 to the Regents, and on submitting such 
evidences as they ma}^ require, receive from them an indorsement 
of their license or diplomas conferring all rights and privileges of 
a Regents license issued after examination. If any person, whose 
registration is not legal or who is not registered because of some 
error, misunderstanding or unintentional omission, shall submit 
satisfactory proof that he had all requirements prescribed by law 
at the time required for registration and was entitled to be legally 
registered, he may, on unanimous recommendation of the State 
Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners, receive from the Regents 
under seal a certificate of the facts which may be registered by any 
county clerk and shall make valid the previous imperfect registra- 
tion. Before any license is issued it shall be numbered and recorded 
in a book kept in the Regents office and its number shall be noted 
in the license. This record shall be open to public inspection, 
and in all legal proceedings, shall have the same weight as evidence 
that is given to a record of conveyance of land. [As amended by 
latvs of 1895, c/i.86o, 1896, c/j.840 and 1900, cJi.^yg] 

§ I79a^ Registry. Every license to practise veterinary medicine 
shall before the licensee begins practice thereunder, be registered 
in a book to be known as the " Veterinary Medical Register," which 
shall be provided by and kept in the clerk's office of the county 
where such practice is to be carried on, with name, residence, place 
and date of birth, and source, number and date of its- license to 
practise. Before registering, each licensee shall file, to be kept in a 

1 §180-84 renumbered as §i79a-79e by laws of 1896, ch.840, §2. 
^So in official edition. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 7I 

bound volume in the county clerk's office, an affidavit of the above Licensee to 
facts, and also that he is the person named in such license, and had, affidavit of 

i_ r • • 1 1- 1 • 1 11 • • 1 identity and 

before receivmo- the same, complied with all requisites as to attend- of compliance 

, - , 1 • • • , 1 , with all 

ance, terms and amount 01 study and examination required by law provisions 

. . ^ . . of law 

and the rules of the University as preliminary to the conferment 
thereof, and no money was paid for such license, except the regular 
fees, paid by all applicants therefor ; that no fraud, misrepresenta- 
tion or mistake in any material regard was employed by any one 
or incurred in order that such license should be conferred. Every 
license, or if lost, a copy thereof, legally certified so as to be admissi- County 
ble as evidence, or a duly attested transcript of the record of its register tin 
conferment, shall, before registering, be exhibited to the county license or le- 
clerk, who, only in case it was issued or indorsed as a license under copy duly in- 
seal by the Regents, shall indorse or stamp on it the date and his University 
name preceded by the words : " Registered as authority to practise 
veterinary medicine, in the clerk's office of . . . county." The clerk Licensee to 

. . . , have certified 

shall thereupon give to every veterinarian so registered a trans- copy of regis- 

r , • • , • -1 -T- 1 1 tration 

script of the entries m the register, with a certificate under seal 
that he has filed the prescribed affidavit. The licensee shall pay to Registration 
the county clerk as^ a total fee of $i for registration, affidavit and 
certificate. [As amended by lazvs of 1895, cA.86o] 

§ i7Qb^ Registration in another county. A practising veterinar- Practising 

^ f y o J f & veterinarian 

ian having registered a lawful authority to practise veterinary medi- pay register 
cine in one county, and removing such practice or part thereof to county on 

•^ • . . showing proof 

another county, or regularly engaging in practice or opening an of existing 
office in another county, shall show or send by registered mail to^ion 
the clerk of such other county, his certificate of registration. If 
such certificate clearly shows that the original registration was of 
an authority issued under seal by the Regents, or if the certificate 
itself is indorsed by the Regents as entitled to registration, the 
clerk shall thereupon register the applicant in the latter county, on' 
receipt of a fee of 25 cents, and shall stamp or indorse on such p^^ ^ 
certificate the date and his name, preceded by the words : " Regis- 
tered also in . . . ^ county " and return the certificate to the applicant. 
[As amended by lazvs of 1895, ch.S6o] 
§ 1 7Qc^ Certificate presumptive evidence ; unauthorized regis- Proof of legal 

^ ^ ^ . . right to prac- 

tration and license prohibited. Everv unrevoked certificate and tise requisite 

.' . , . for registra- 

indorsement of registry, made as provided in this article, shall betio^ 
presumptive evidence in all courts and places that the person named 

1 So in official edition. 

2 §180-84 renumbered as §1793- 79e by laws of 1896, ch.840, §2. 



72 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



therein is legally registered. Hereafter no person shall register 
any authority to practise veterinary medicine unless it has been 
issued or indorsed as a license by the Regents. No diploma or 
license conferred on a person not actually in attendance at the 
lectures, instructions and examinations of the school conferring 
the same, or not possessed at the time of its conferment of the 
requirements then demanded of veterinary medical students in this 
state as a condition of their being licensed so to practise, and 
no registration not in accordance with this article shall be lawful 
authority to practise veterinary medicine, nor shall the degree of 
doctor of veterinary medicine be conferred causa honoris or ad 
eundiim^ nor if previously conferred shall it be a qualification for 
such practice. [As amended by lazvs of 1895, ch.S6o] 

§ lygd- Construction of this article. This article shall not be 
construed to effect^ commissioned veterinary medical officers serving 
in the United States army, or in the United States Bureau of Animal 
Industry while so commissioned ; nor any person for giving gratui- 
tous services in case of emergency ; or any lawfully qualified 
veterinarian in other states or countries meeting legally registered 
veterinarians in this state in consultation ; or any veterinarian resid- 
ing on a border of a neighboring state and duly authorized under 
the laws thereof to practise veterinary medicine therein, whose 
practice extends into this state, and who does not open an office or 
appoint a place to meet patients or receive calls within this state ; 

isolated cases or any Veterinarian duly registered in one county called to attend 
isolated cases in another county, but not residing or habitually prac- 

Acts authoriz- tisiug therein. This article shall be construed to repeal all acts 
or parts of acts authorizing conferment of any degree in veterinary 
medicine, causa honoris or ad eundum,^ or otherwise, than on stu- 
dents duly graduated after satisfactory completion of a preliminary 
and veterinary medical course, not less than that required by this 
article, as a condition of license. [As amended by lazvs of 1895, 
ch.S6o] 

FineSsoaday § 1796" Penalties and their collection. Every person who shall 

practice and practisc Veterinary medicine within this state without lawful regis- 

for each vio- . . . .^ . . . . r t • .,,,,.- 

latjon tration or m violation ot any provision oi this article shall forfeit 

to the county wherein such persons shall so practise, or in which 
any violation shall be committed, $50 for every such violation, and 
for every day of such unlawful practice, and any incorporated 



Diploma or_ 
license not in 
accord with 
this law in- 
valid for reg- 
istration 



D. v. S. hon- 
orary or ad 
eundem pro- 
hibited 



This act doe 
not apply to: 
United States 
veterinary 
medical 
officers; 



gratuitous 
aid in emer- 
gency; 

foreign veter- 
inarians in 
consultation ; 

duly author- 
ized practi- 
tioners near 
state bound- 
ary; 



ing veterinary 
degrees causa 
honoris or ad 
eundem re- 
pealed 



1 So in official edition. 

2 §180-84 renumbered as §i79a-79e by laws of 1896, ch.840, §2, 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 73 

veterinary medical society of the state or any county veterinary Any incorpo- 
medical society of such county entitled to representation in a state ary medical 

., ..' ... ^ , ., society may 

society, may bring an action m the name of such county for the bring action 
collection of such penalties, and the expense incurred bv such society Expenses of 

, . . , , . , - " , prosecution to 

in such prosecution, including necessary counsel fees, may be re- be paid from 

tained by such society out of the penalties so collected, and the 

residue, if any, shall be paid into the county treasury. Anv person False person- 

1 1 11 • • 1- • r 1 ' ation a felony 

who shall practise veterinary medicine under a false or assumed 

name or who shall falsely personate another practitioner of a like or Attempting to 

practise ille- 

diff erent name, shall be guilty of a felony ; and any person guilty F^Hy or hav- 
of violating any of the other provisions of this act, not otherwise such attempt 
specifically punished herein, or who shall buy, sell or fraudulently meaner 
obtain any veterinary medical diploma, license, record or registra- 
tion, or who shall aid or abet such buying, selling or fraudulently 
obtaining, or who shall practise veterinary medicine under the cover 
of a diploma, or license illegally obtained, or signed or issued unlaw- 
fullv or under fraudulent representation, or mistake of fact in Conviction of 

r ' felony dis- 

material regard, or who, after conviction of a felony, shall attempt qualifies 

to practise veterinary medicine, and any person who shall, without 

having been authorized so to do legally, append anv veterinary title Unauthorized 

1 . , ' , . ' . . . assumption 

to his or her name, or shall assume or advertise any veterinary title of veterinary 

... title a misde- 

m such a manner as to convey the impression that he is a lawful meanor 

practitioner of veterinary medicine or any of its branches, shall be 

guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished 

by a fine of not less than $2^0 or imprisonment for six months for Penalty, fine 

, , or im prison - 

the first offense, and on conviction of a subsequent ofifense by a fine ment; for 

^ -^ subsequent 

of not less than $500 or imprisonment for not less than one year, °\"^'r either 
or by both fine and imprisonment. [As amended by lazvs of 1895, doubled 
eh.86o] 

Matriculates in a registered veterinary medical school : 

1 Before Jan. i, 1896 are exempt from preliminary education require- 
ment for degrees and for admission to the licensing examinations. 

2 Before Jan. i, 1905 must offer 24 academic counts or two years of 
satisfactory high school work or their equivalent before beginning the second 
course counted toward the degree. After Jan. i, 1905, any 48^ academic 
counts or four years of satisfactory high school work or their equivalent. 
Partial equivalents may be accepted. 

1 On the basis of the 1900 syllabus ; to be increased 25% for examinations 
on the basis of the 1905 syllabus. 



74 NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

Certified public accountants 

Laws of 1896, ch.2,12. 
United States s i Qualification. Any citizen of the United States, or person 

citizen " -f. ... . ... 

actual or de- -wlio has dulv declared his intention of becomino^ such citizen, resid- 

clared, of -^ . 

proper age {^a- or havinff a olacc for the resfular transaction of business in the 

and character "-• or o 

may become state, being ovcr the age of 21 years and of good moral character, 
and who shall have received from the Regents of the University 
a certificate of his qualification to practise as a public expert account- 
Unauthorized ant. as hereinafter provided, shall be styled and known as a certified 

assumption of 'in i • i 

title for-. public accouutaut ; and no other person shall assume such title, or 

bidden f ' f 

use the abbreviation G. P. A. or any other words, letters or figures, 
to indicate that the person using the same is such certified public 
accountant. 
Regents to ap- ^ 2 Examinations and credentials. The Regents of the Univer- 

pomt three "- ... 

examiners, gity shall make rulcs for the examination of persons applying for 

must be.certi-(,gj.^j£;(,a^gg under this act, and may appoint a board of three exami- 
ned public ac- J sr c 
countants j^crs for the purpose, which board shall, after the year 1897, be 

composed of certified public accountants. The Regents shall charge 

^a^ge*fel°for ^o^ examination and certificate such fee as may be necessary to 

expenses meet the actual expenses of such examinations, and they shall report, 

annually, their receipts and expenses under the provisions of this 

act to the State Comptroller, and pay the balance of receipts over 

Regents may expenditures to the State Treasurer. The Regents may revoke 

revoke car- ^ .... 

tificate for any such certificate for sufficient cause after written notice to the 

cause "^ 

holder thereof and a hearing thereon. 
Regents may s o Exemptions. The Regents may, in their discretion, waive 

certify with- o o f o J -r • 

outexamina- ^\^q examination of any person possessing the qualifications men- 
tion tiii Sep. I, tioned in §1 who shall have been, for more than one year before the 
passage of this act, practising in this state on his own account, 
as a public accountant, and who shall apply in writing for such cer- 
tificate within one year after the passage of this act. 

[Time extended to Sep. i, 1901, hy lazvs of 1901, c^.343] 
§ 4 Violation. Any violation of this act shall be a misdemeanor. 

Notes on public accountant's law 

1 The three examiners are appointed to serve for one year. Sine* 1897 
the board has been composed of certified public accountants. 

2 Certificates will be revoked for cause. 

3 The full C. P. A. certificate is granted only to those at least 25 years! 
of age who have had three years satisfactory experience in the practice of 
accounting, one of which shall have been in the office of an expert public 
accountant. 



1901 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW 75 

4 Candidates having the required preliminary education and passing the 
required examinations, but lacking the age or the three years experience 
required for the full C. P. A. certificate may be certified as junior account- 
ants under the same conditions as to residence and character. 

5 Two examinations, in January and in June, are held annually. There 
are three sessions of three hours each and one of four hours: (i) theory of 
accounts, 3 hours; (2) practical accounting, 4 hours; (3) auditing, 3 hours; 
(4) commercial law, 3 hours. 

6 Candidates must complete all four subjects at a single examination 
as required in medicine. 

7 Candidates for either the C. P. A. or the junior accountant certificate 
must be more than 21 years of age and of good moral character. They 
must pay a fee of $25, and must have the Regents academic diploma or its 
equivalent as prescribed for other professional examinations. 

8 For credentials accepted by the Regents as fully equivalent to the 
academic diploma, see p.So. 

Registration o£ nurses 

Public health law 1893, ch.66i, art. 12, as amended to April 1903 

§ 206 Who may practise as registered nurses. Any resident of 
the State of New York, being over the age of 21 years and of good 
moral character holding a diploma from a training school for nurses 
connected with a hospital or sanitarium giving a course of at least 
two years, and registered by the Regents of the University of the 
State of New York as maintaining in this and other respects proper 
standards, all of which shall be determined by the said Regents, and 
who shall have received from the said Regents a certificate of his 
or her qualifications to practise as a registered nurse, shall be styled 
and known as a registered nurse, and no other person shall assume 
such title, or use the abbreviation R. N. or any other words, letters 
or figures to indicate that the person using the name is such a regis- 
tered nurse. Before beginning to practise nursing every such regis- 
tered nurse shall cause such certificate to be recorded in the county 
clerk's office of the county of his or her residence with an affidavit 
of his or her identity as the person to whom the same was so issued 
and of his or her place of residence within such county. In the 
month of January, 1906, and in every 36th month thereafter, every 
registered nurse shall again cause his or her certificate to be recorded 
in the said county clerk's office, with an affidavit of his or her identity 
as the person to whom the same was issued, and of his or her place 
of residence at the time of such reregistration. Nothing contained 
in this act shall be considered as conferring any authority to practise 
medicine or to undertake the treatment or cure of disease in viola- 
tion of article 8 of this chapter. 



y^ NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

§ 207 Board of examiners ; examination ; fees. Upon the tak- 
ing effect of this act, the New York State Nurses Association shall 
nominate for examiners 10 of their members who have had not less 
than five years' experience in their profession, and at each annual 
meeting" of said association thereafter, two other candidates. The 
Regents of the University of the State of New York shall appoint 
a .board of five examiners from such list. One member of said 
board shall be appointed for one year, one for two years, one for 
three years, one for four years, and one for five years. Upon the 
expiration of the term of ofiice of any examiner the said Regents 
shall likewise fill the vacancy for a term of five years and until his 
or her successor is chosen. An unexpired term of an examiner 
caused by death, resignation or otherwise, shall be filled by the 
Regents in the same manner as an original appointment is made. 
The said Regents, with the advice of the board of examiners above 
provided for, shall make rules for the examination of nurses apply- 
ing for certification under this act, and shall charge for examination 
and for certification a fee of $5 to meet the actual expenses, and 
shall report annually their receipts and expenditures under the pro- 
visions of this act, to the State Comptroller, and pay the balance of 
receipts over expenditures to the State Treasurer. The said Regents 
may revoke any such certificate for sufficient cause after written 
notice to the holder thereof and hearing thereon. No person shall 
thereafter practise as a registered nurse under any such revoked 
certificate. 

§ 208 Waiver of examinations. The Regents of the University 
of the State of New York, may upon the recommendation of said 
board of examiners, waive the examination of any persons possessing 
the qualifications mentioned in section 206, who shall have been 
graduated before, or who are in training at the time of, the passage 
of this act and shall hereafter be graduated, and of such persons 
now engaged in the practice of nursing as have had three years' 
experience in a general hospital prior to the passage of this act, 
who shall apply in writing for such certificate within three years 
after the passage of this act, and shall also grant a certificate to any 
nurse of good moral character, who has been engaged in the actual 
practice of nursing for not less than three years next prior to the 
passage of this act who shall satisfactorily pass an examination in 
practical nursing within three years hereafter. 



THE UNIVERSITY LAW "JJ 

§ 209 Violations of this article. Any violation of this article 
shall be a misdemeanor. AAHien any prosecution under this article 
is made on the complaint of the New York State Nurses Association, 
the certificate of incorporation of which was filed and recorded in 
the ofiice of the secretary of state on the second day of April, 1902 
the fines collected shall be paid to said association and any excess* 
in the amount of fines so paid over the expenses incurred by said 
association in enforcing the provisions of this article shall be paid 
at the end of each year to the Treasurer of the State of New York. 



INDEX. 



Abolition of libraries, 25. 

Absences, from Regents meetings, 
9-10; from trustees meetings, 19- 

Absolute charters, see Charters. 

Academic certificates, see Certificates. 

Academic departments, defined in 
University law, 8; grants, 14. 

Academic diplomas, see Diplomas. 

Academic examinations, law author- 
izing, 11; admission to, 11; fees, 
II. 

Academic fund, laws, 14-15, 27; de- 
ficiency, 15, 27; quota, 27. See 
also Literature fimd. 

Academic students, grants on at- 
tendance, 27. 

Academic year, 44. 

Academies, term defined, 8; may 
establish separate departments i S ; 
dissolution, 31-33; incorporation, 
15; may hold real estate, i5- 
See also Academic fund ; Charters ; 
Secondary school libraries; Trus- 
tees. 

Acceptance of library gifts, 21. 

Accountants, see Public accountants. 

Accumulation of trust funds, 37. 

Acts repeale.d, 25, 27, 65. 

Admission to examinations, 11. 

Advice from State Library, 24. 

Albany Medical College, gift to state 
medical library, 12. 

Amendment, of Regents ordinances 
or bylaws, 10; of charters, 16; 
of trustees, bylaws etc., 20. 

Apparatus, loans for extension work, 
II. S^e a/50 Books and apparatus. 

Appointment of University em- 
ployees, 5, 10. 

Apportionment, see Grants. 

Appropriations, for State Library, 12. 
See also Academic fund; Fimds; 
Public library grants. 



Approval, of books, 25; of library 

transfers, 23; of acceptance of 

library gifts, 21. 
Archives in State Library, 11. 
Art associations, incorporation, 15. 
Associations, transfers of Ubraries by, 

2T,- See also Charters. 
Attendance grants from academic 

fund, 27. 

B.D.S. degree, see Dental degrees. 

Bar, admission to, see Law, practice 
of. 

Bequests, limitation, 35; protection 
of, 36; of certain personal^property 
exempt, 40; how used, 24. See 
also Property; Trusts. 

Birds, certificates to collect for 
scientific purposes, 28-29. 

Boards of estimate and apportion- 
ment may establish library, 21. 

Boards of examiners, see Dental 
examiners ; Medical examiners ; 
Nurses examiners ; Public account- 
ant examiners; Veterinary ex- 
aminers. 

Bond of Secretary, 9. 

Books, Regents may buy for li- 
braries, 2 4 ; standard for local sub- 
sidies, 2 1 ; transfers of state books, 
13; wilful detention, 23; bought 
with pubKc money: approved, 25; 
forfeiture of grants, 23; return 
of, 15, 25. See also 'Loans,; Public 
library grants ; State Library. 

Books and apparatus grants, laws, 
15, 27. 

Botanist, state, member of museum 
staff, 13. 

Branch institutions, establishment 
restricted , 17. 

Branch libraries, authorized, 21. 

Branches of State Library, 13. 



8o 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Bulletins, issued by Regents, 14; 
receipts from sales, 24. 

Business schools, use of name college, 
17. 

Bylaws, Regents, power to make, 
alter or repeal, 10; license ex- 
aminers power to make, 47, 57, 67- 
68; trustees power to make, 20. 

C.P.A., use of abreviation, 74. See 
also Public accountants. 

Capital stock, taxation, 2Q-30. 

Certificates, of appointment on state 
examining boards, 47, 67-68; con- 
ferment by Regents, 11; of dis- 
solved academy stock, 33-34; pro- 
vision against fraud, 17; trustees 
power to confer, 20. See also 
Credentials. 

Certified public accountants, see 
Public accountants. 

Chancellor of University, election, 
9; term, 9; oath, 9; duties, 9. 

Charitable corporations, bequests to, 
35; exemptions from taxation, 
38-40. See also Corporations. 

Charters, University: 15; alteration 
or repeal, 1 6 ; conditions of granting, 
17; library, 15, 22; property re- 
quirements, 17; substitute, 16; 
surrender of, 17; suspension, 14, 
16, 17; 

provisional : 1 5-1 6 ; give no power 
to confer degrees, 16; 
restrictions: on location, 17; 
degree-conferring power, 17 ; estab- 
lishment of branches, 17. See also 
Corporations. 

Circulating libraries, see Free public 
libraries. 

Circulation .''subsidies granted on, 21. 

Cities, may establish libraries, 21, 
42; may hold trusts, 37. 

Collections, see Scientific collections. 

Colleges, term defined, 8; degree- 
conferring power, 1 7 ; diminished 
trust funds, 38; incorporation, 15; 
conditions for incorporation, 17; 
use of name, 17, 44; may hold 
trusts, 36; waterworks and sewer 
systems, 40-42, 

Colonial history in Regents custody. 



Commissioner of Education, election, 
5 ; powers, 5-6 ; salary, 5 ; svic- 
cessors in office, 5; term of office, 
5; traveling expenses, 5; vacancy, 
in office, how filled, 5. 

Commissioners, school, see School 
commissioners. 

Committees, of medical examining 
board, 47. See also Executive 
committee. 

Common council, authority to es- 
tablish libraries, 21. 

Common school fund, inviolable, 3 ; 
disposition of revenues, 3. 

Common school libraries, transfers, 
23. See also Secondary school lib- 
raries. 

Common schools, maintenance, 3. 

Constitution, state, extracts from, 3, 
29. 

Construction, of University law, 26; 
of medical law, 54; of dental law, 
62; of veterinary law, 72. 

Contract, for library privileges, 21. 

Corporations, bequests to, 35; dis- 
solution, 16; extension of business 
restricted, 17; incorporation by 
special act forbidden, 29; libraries 
transferred by, 23; management, 
30; property holding, 30; pur- 
poses of forming, 29; appoint- 
ment of receivers, 16, 31; certain 
must be created by Regents, 29; 
taxes, 29-30; exempt from taxa- 
tion, 38-40. See also Charters; 
Institutions of University. 

Counterfeiting credentials, 18, 54, 63- 

64, 73- 

County treasurer, trustee of un- 
claimed academy stock, 34. 

Court of Appeals, libraries, 42 ; rules 
for law students, 43-44. 

Courts, jurisdiction on dental cases, 

64. 

Credentials, for extension work, 11; 
fraudulent, 17, 54, 63-64, 73; Re- 
gents may confer, 1 1 ; trustees 
may confer, 20. See also Certifi- 
cates; Diplomas. 

Creditors of academy, notice to, 33; 
claims, 33. 

Cumulative credit for English, 50. 



INDEX TO THE UNIVERSITY LAW 



8i 



D.D.S. degree, requirements, 59. 

D.V.S. degree, honorary, prohibited, 
72. 

Days attendance, grants for, 27. 

Definition of terms, University law, 

■ 8, 20; public health law, 46, SS, 66. 

Degree-conferring institutions, prop- 
erty requirements ,17; restriction 
of number, 17. See also Colleges. 

Degree-conferring power, restrictions , 
17-18. 

Degrees, charter restrictions, 17; 
conferred by Regents, 11; protec- 
tion against fraud, 17-18; provi- 
sional charter gives no power to 
confer, 16 ; trustees may confer, 20 ; 
honorary. Regents may confer, 11. 
See also D.D.S. degree; D.V.S. 
degree ; M.D. degree ; M.D.S. degree. 

Delinquent and dormant institutions, 
exclusion from University mem- 
bership, 14; suspension of charter, 

14, 17- 
Delinquent libraries, 23-24, 25. 
Dental degrees, requirements, 59. 
Dental examiners, state boards, 57- 

59- 

Dental licenses, issued by Regents, 
5 9-60; indorsement, 59; registra- 
tion, 60—61; revocation, 61—62; 
fraudulent, 63. 

Dental licensing examinations, 58- 
59; fees, 61. 

Dental societies, 56-57. 

Dental students, preliminary re- 
quirements, 58; exemption from in- 
creased preliminary requirements, 
65-66. 

Dentistry, practice of, law regulat- 
ing, 55-66; dentists exemption 
from medical law, 54. 

Departments of University, adminis- 
tration, 9. 

Deputy secre.tarv of University, 9. 

Detention of librarj^ or museum prop- 
erty, 23. 

Devises, see Bequests. 

Diminution of trust funds, 38. 

Diplomas, conferment restricted, 17; 
provisions against fraud , 17; Re- 



gents may confer, 1 1 ; Regents 
diploma defined, 45; trustees 
power, 20. See also Credentials. 

Directors, see Trustees. 

Dissolution, of educational corpora- 
tions, 16; of academies, 31-33. 

District libraries, transfers, 23. 

Dividends, see Grants. 

Documents, see Public documents. 

Dormant institutions, see Delinquent 
and dormant institutions. 

Duplicate department of State Lib- 
rary, 12, 24; receipts from sales, 

12, 24; loans of books from, 24. 
Duplicates, specimens from State 

Museum, 10; lent from State Lib- 
rary, 10, 24; transferred to State 
Library or Museum, 13 ; exchanges, 

13. 24. 

Educational corporations, see Cor- 
porations. 

Educational funds, see Funds. 

Educational institutions, see Institu- 
tions. 

Election, of Regents, 4-5, 8-9; of 
Regents officers, 9 ; of trustees, 19 ; 
of library trustees, 22. 

Employees of University, appoint- 
ments, 5, 10. 

Employees of University institutions, 
appointment and salaries, 20; 
terms of office, 20; removals, 20. 

English, cumulative credit, 50. 

Entomologist, state, member of mu- 
seum staff, 13.. 

Equivalents, dental student require- 
ments, 66; partial, for dental stu- 
dent certificate, 66; law student 
requirements, 43-44; medical stu- 
dent requirements, 48-49, 50-51; 
partial, for medical student certifi- 
cate, 50; requirements for medical 
license, 48; veterinary student re- 
quirements, 73; partial, for veteri- 
nary student certificate, 73; re- 
quirements for veterinary license, 
68-69 ; 

equivalents from local sources: 
25 ; subject to return to State, 25. 



82 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Estimate and apportionment, boards 
of, may establish libraries, 21. 

Ex officio Regents, 4, 8. 

Examinations, admission to, 11; for 
extension work, 11; fraud in, 18; 
law authorizing, 1 1 . See also Aca- 
demic examinations ; Degrees ; 
Dental licensing examinations ; 
Fees; Law student^examinations ; 
Medical licensing examinations ; 
Professional examinations; Public 
accountants; Veterinary licensing 
examinations. 

Examiners, see Dental examiners; 
Medical examiners ; Nurses, exam- 
iners; Public accountant examin- 
ers; Veterinary examiners. 

Exchanges, of duplicates from State 
Library, 13, 24. 

Executive committee of trustees, 18. 

Exemptions from taxation, 38-40. 

Expenses, medical licensing examina- 
tions, 47 ; dental licensing exami- 
nations, 61; veterinary licensing 
examinations, 68. 

Extension of business, restriction, 17. 

Extension of educational facilities ,11. 

Extra copies of state publications, 12. 

False personation, 55, 64, 73. 

Fees, for academic examinations, 1 1 ; 
for dental examinations, 61; for 
medical examinations, 47; for 
public accountant examinations, 
74; for veterinary examinations; 
68; for assistance to libraries, 24; 
for indorsement of medical license, 
52; for registration of medical li- 
cense, 53; use of, II, 24, 47, 61, 68. 

Felony, conviction of disqualifies for 
practice of medicine, 55; dentis- 
try, 61-62; veterinary medicine, 

73- 

Finances, see Funds. 

Fines, for injury to library or mu- 
seum property, 23; for detention 
of books, 23; disposition of, 24; 
for violation of dental law, 62-63, 
65 ; for violations of medical law, 
55; for violations of veterinary 
law, 72-73. 



Forfeiture of state grants, 23. 

Fraud in obtaining credentials, 17- 
18. 

Free public libraries, law affecting, 20 ; 
abolition, 25 ; delinquent libraries, 
23, 24, 25 ; establishment, 21, 26, 42 ; 
incorporation, 15, 22; library fund, 
22; instruction on organizing, 24; 
penalties for detention of books, 
23; penalties for injuries to prop- 
erty, 23; control of property by 
Regents, 24; reports, 22; formed 
from school libraries, 23; sub- 
sidies, 21-22; taxes, 21,22; rights 
of libraries transferred, 23; trus- 
tees, 22, 23—24, 26; use, 23. See 
also Branch libraries; Institutions 
of University; Public library 
grants. 

Free school fund, see Common school 
fund. 

Funds, custody, 8; disposition of 
revenues, 3; distribution of, 14- 
1 5 ; grants to sectarian institutions 
forbidden, 3, 15; inviolable, 3, 15; 
law of I go 4, 6. See also Academic 
fund ; Common school fund ; Liter- 
ature fund; Public library grants; 
United States deposit fund. 

General corporation law, extract 

from, 30-31. 
General fund, 14. 
General municipal law, extract from, 

42. 
Geologist, state, member of museum 

staff, 13. 
Gifts, disposition, 24; to libraries, 

conditional acceptance of, 21. See 

also Bequests. 
Government libraries, 13. 
Government of University, 8. 
Government publications, see Public 

documents. 
Governor, ex officio Regent 8. 
Grants, academic fund: laws, 14-15, 

27; deficiency, 15, 27; quota, 27; 
public library money: law, 24- 

25 ; equivalents from local sources, 

25; forfeiture ,'23; return to state, 

25. See also Bequests. 



INDEX TO THE UNIVERSITY LAW 



83 



Hearings, on proposed changes in 
charters, 16; on proposed annul- 
ment of charters, 16. 

High schools, use of term, 8. 

Higher education, in state Constitu- 
tion, 3; defined in University law, 
8. 

Higher examinations, admission to, 
11. 

Historical associations, incorpora- 
tion, 15. 

Honorary degrees, see Degrees, 
honorary. 

Horton law, 15; as amended, 27, 

Income from trust funds, accumula- 
tion, 37, 38. 

Incorporation, see Charters. 

Indians, see Onondaga nation. 

Indorsement, of dental licenses, 59- 
60; of medical licenses, 52; of 
veterinary licenses, 70. 

Injuries to library and museum prop- 
erty, penalties, 23. 

Insanity law, extract from, 42. 

Inspection, law regulating, 14; lib- 
raries, 2 I ; a prerequisite to academic 
grants, 14-15; required before 
granting right to name college or 
university, 17; of State Museum, 

13- 

Institutions of University, 14 ; branch 
institutions unauthorized , 17; 
change of name, 16; dissolution 
and rechartering, 16; may be ex- 
cluded from University member- 
ship, 14; management, 30; exten- 
sion of property limit by Regents, 
19; exemption from taxation, 38- 
40. See also Academies; Char- 
ters ; Colleges ; Degree-conferring 
power; Delinquent and dormant 
institutions ; Free public libraries ; 
Inspection ; Libraries ; Officers ; 
Property; Trustees; Trusts. 

Intentional fraud, 17-18. 

Law, practice of, rules governing, 

43-45- 
Law student certificate must be 

filed, 45. 



Law student examinations, rules re- 
quiring, 43-45; subjects, 43; equi- 
valents for, 43-44. 

Laws repealed, 25, 27, 65. 

Lecturers, extension. Regents may 
designate, 11; expenses, 11. 

Lectures, Regents may maintain, 10. 

Legislature, members of, may bor- 
row from State Library, 12. 

Liability of academy trustees, 34- 

Libraries, abolition, 25; definition, 
20; establishment, 21, 26, 42; in- 
corporation, IS, 22; museum col- 
lections, 22; penalties for deten- 
tion of books, 23; penalties for 
injuries to property, 23; reports, 

13, 22; owned by the state, 13; 
for state hospitals, 42 ; State Lib- 
rary branches, 13; subsidies, 21- 
22; transfers, 23; transfers of 
books, papers etc., 13. See also 
Books; Branch libraries; Com- 
mon school libraries; Delinquent 
libraries; District libraries; Free 
public libraries; Institutions of 
University ; PubHc library grants ; 
Secondary school libraries; State 
Library; Traveling libraries. 

Library commission, 24. 

Library fund, 22. 

Library School, authority for, 24. 

Licenses, provisions against fraud, 
1 7 . See also Dental licenses ; Medi- 
cal licenses; Veterinary licenses. 

Licensing examiners, see Dental ex- 
aminers; Medical examiners ; Pub- 
lic accountant examiners; Veter- 
inary examiners. 

Lieutenant governor, ex officio Re- 
gent, 8. 

Limitation of bequests, 35. 

Literary institutions, see Institutions 
of University. 

Literature fund, inviolable, 3, 15; 
use of revenues, 3, 15 ; grants from, 

14. See also Academic fund. 
Loans, for extension work, 11; of 

property by trustees, 19; from 
State Library, 10, 11, 13, 24; from 
• State Museum, 10. 



84 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Location of institutions, limitation, 
17. 

M.D. degree, conferment, 48; ca^isa 
honoris prohibited, 54. 

M.D.S. degree, 59. 

Managers, see Trustees. 

Manuscripts, transfer to State Li- 
brary, 13; "on file," disposition, 
11; removals, 11-12. 

Maps, transfer to State Library, 13. 

Medical degrees, 48-49, 54. 

Medical examiners, state boards, 46- 
47 ; to prepare questions, 51. 

Medical library, state, 12. 

Medical licenses, issued by Univer- 
sity, 51-52; indorsement, 52; reg- 
gistration, 52-53; imperfect regis- 
tration, legalization, 52; recorded 
in Regents office, 52; fraudulent, 
54-5S. 

Medical licensing examinations, ad- 
mission to, 47—51; conduct of, 51; 
equivalents for preliminaries, 48- 
49, 5 0-51; equivalents for profes- 
sional requirements, 48; fees, 47; 
reexamination, 51; subjects, 51; 
times and places, 51. 

Medical schools, defined, 46; stand- 
ards for registration, 48. 

Medical staff of hospitals exempt 
from medical law, 54. 

Medical student certificates, 49; 
modifications in requirements, 50. 

Medicine, practice of, law regulating, 

46-55. 

Meetings, of medical examiners, 47; 
of veterinary examiner?, 68. See 
also Regents meetings: Trustees 
of University institutions. 

Membership corporation law, extract 
from, 29. 

Membership in University, 14; ex- 
clusion from, 14. 

Money, see Funds. 

Municipal corporations may establish 
Hbrary or museum, 21, 42. 

Museum collections in libraries, 22. 

Museums, incorporation, 15, 42; law 
affecting, 20, 42; penalties for in- 



juries to property, 23; detention 
of property 23. See also State Mu- 
seum. 

Name, of University, 3, 8; use of 
name college or university, 17, 
44- 

Names of institutions, change of, 16. 

Natural history publications, 12. 

Neglect of libraries, 23-24. 

New York State Agricultural So- 
ciety, use of museum, 13, 

Notice, of action affecting charter, 
16; to creditors of academy, 33; 
of distribution of academy stock, 
34; of meeting to dissolve acad- 
emy, 32; of Regents meetings, 9; 
of trustees meetings, 18-19; of 
proposed removals or suspensions. 
20. 

Nurses, registration of, 75-77; ex- 
aminers, 76. 

Oath of office, University officers, 9; 
license examiners, 47, 67. 

Objects of University, 8. 

Observatories, trusts for, 36. 

Officers, of state examining boards, 
47, 58, 68; of State Library, ad- 
vice and instruction from, 24; of 
State Library and Museum, ap- 
pointed by Regents, 10; 

of University: 9, 10; appoint- 
ments, 10; chosen by ballot, 9; 
oath of office, 9 ; removals, 9 ; sal- 
aries, 9, 10; terms, 9; 

of University institutions: ap- 
pointed by trustees, 20; ineligible 
as Regents, 9; removals and sus- 
pensions by trustees, 20; terms 
fixed by trustees, 20. See also 
State officers. 

Official publications, see Publica- 
tions. 

Onondaga nation, University made 
wampum-keeper, 28. 

Ordinances, Regents power to make, 
alter or repeal, 10; power of trus- 
tees to make, 20. 

Organization tax, 29-30. 



INDEX TO THE UNIVERSITY LAW 



85 



Paid help, 24. 

Paleontologist, state, member of 
museum staff, 13. 

Papers, transfer to State Library, 13. 

Partial eqmvalents, see Equivalents. 

Penalties, for fraudulent credentials, 
18; for injuries to property, 23; 
for violations of dental law, 62-65 ; 
for violations of medical law, 54— 
55; for violations of veterinary 
law, 72-73. 

Personal property, certain, exempt 
from taxation, 40. 

Physicians, qualifications for prac- 
tice, 46; registration, 52-53; non- 
residents of New York, 54. See 
also Medical licenses. 

Powers, of medical examiners, 47 ; of 
veterinary examiners, 67-68. See 
also Chancellor; Regents, powers 
and duties; Secretary of Univer- 
sity. 

Preliminary education, for dental 
students, 58, 65-66; for law stu- 
dents, 43-45 ; for medical students, 
48-5 1 ; for veterinary students, 68, 

73- 

President of college, ineligible as Re- 
gent, 9. 

Principal of academj'-, ineligible as 
Regent, 9. 

Principal of trust fund, diminution, 

38. 

Private seminaries not exempt from 
taxation, 39. 

Professional examinations, 43-77. 
See also Dental licensing examina- 
tions ; Law student examinations ; 
Medical licensing examinations ; 
Veterinary licensing examinations. 

Professorships, trusts for, 36. 

Prohibitions on conferring degrees 
and diplomas, 17-18. 

Property, academies may hold, 15; 
authorization beyond charter limit, 
19; acquisition by corporations, 
3 1 ; power of corporations to hold 
and dispose of, 30; of extinct cor- 
porations, 16; limit of corpora- 
tions, 31; exempt from taxation. 



38-40; penalties for injuries to, 
23; requirements for degree-con- 
ferring institutions, 17 ; subject to 
return to state, 15; of State Lib- 
rary, 1 1 ; transfer to State Library, 
13; transfer by trustees, 20; con- 
trol by trustees, 19 ; 

of libraries: of abolished lib- 
raries, 25; control by Regents, 24; 
subject to return to state, 25; of 
transferred libraries, 23. See also 
Trusts. 

Provisional charters, see Charters, 
University : provisional. 

Public accountant examiners, 74. 

Public accountants, law, 74-75; ex- 
aminations, 74. 

Public documents, part of State Lib- 
rary, II ; in duplicate department, 
12. 

Public health law, extracts from, 46- 

55, 75-77. 
Public Instruction, Superintendent 

of: ex officio Regent, 8; office 

abolished, 5. 
Public libraries, see Free public lib- 
raries. 
Public library grants, law, 24-25; 

equivalents from local sources, 25 ; 

forfeiture, 23; return to state, 25. 
Public school libraries, see Common 

school libraries ; District libraries ; 

Secondary school libraries. 
Public schools, maintenance, 3. 
Publications of University, receipts 

from sales, 24. See also Public 

documents; State publications. 

Qualifications, for admission to den- 
tal licensing examinations, 58, 65- 
66 ; for admission to study of law, 
43 ; for admission to medical li- 
censing examinations, 47-51; for 
admission to veterinary licensing 
examinations, 68; for medical ex- 
aminers, 46; for practice of medi- 
cine, 46 ; for practice of veterinary 
medicine, 66-67; public account- 
ants, 74; for veterinary medical 
examiners, 67. 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



Questions, medical examinations, 47, 
51; veterinary examinations, 69. 

Quorum, for Regents meetings, 10; 
fortrustees meetings, 18, 30; medi- 
cal examiners, 47; veterinary ex- 
aminers, 68. 

Quota from academic fund, 27. 

Reading-rooms, law affecting, 20; 
detention of property, 23. 

Real property, see Property. 

Receipts, from sale of duplicates, 12 ; 
from fees, fines and sales, use of, 
II, 24, 47, 61, 68. 

Receivers of corporations, appoint- 
ment, 16, 31. 

Rechartering, see Charters. 

Records, on file, disposition, 11; re- 
movals, 11-12. 

Regents, election, 4-5, 8-9 ; ex officio 
Regents, 8 ; no ex officio members, 
4; ineligibility, 9; ntimber, 3, 4, 8; 
officers, 9; reports, 14; power of 
senior Regent, 9; use of term, 8; 
term of office, 4; vacancies, 4-5, 
8-9, 9-10; 

meetings: 9-10; continued ab- 
sence from, 9-10; Quorum, 10; 
special, 9—10; 

powers and duties : 6 ; to admit 
to University, 14; to appoint den- 
tal examiners, 58; to appoint med- 
ical examiners, 46; concerning 
public accountants, 74; to appoint 
veterinary examiners, 67; to ap- 
point University officers and em- 
ployees, 10; to make bylaws, or- 
dinances, rules, 10; to confer cer- 
tificates, diplomas and^degrees, 11 ; 
to grant charters, 15, 16, 17, 22; 
to alter or repeal charters, 16; to 
recharter, 16; to suspend charters, 
14, 16, 17 ; to regulate use of name 
college or university, 17; to issue 
dental license, 59-60; to indorse 
dental licenses, 59; to suspend or 
revoke dental license, 61 ; to es- 
tablish University departments , 
10; to administer departments of 
University, 10; to maintain dupli- 
cate department, 12; to dissolve 



educational corporations, 16, 32; 
to establish examinations, 11; to 
exclude institutions from Univer- 
sity membership, 14; to govern 
University, 8; to inspect institu- 
tions, 14; to maintain lectures, 
lend books, specimens etc., 10; to 
buy books for libraries, 24; to 
charge fees for certain library ser- 
vices, 24; to furnish libraries to 
state hospitals, 42 ; to make inter- 
library and intermuseum loans, 10; 
to lend traveling libraries, 24; to 
account for expenditure of public 
library money, 25; to prevent dis- 
sipation of public library property, 
24; to submit library reports, 22; 
to make manuscripts and records 
available, 11; to issue medical li- 
censes, 51-52; to indorse medical 
licenses, 52 ; to take oath of office, 
9; to administer oaths, 10; to ex- 
tend property limit, 19; to have 
charge of certain publications, 12; 
application for appointment of re- 
ceivers, 16, 32; to require reports 
from institutions, 14; to report to 
Legislature, 14; as to salaries, 9,10; 
to have charge of State Library 
and State Museum, 10,11; to issue 
subpoenas, 10; to take testimony, 
10; as to accumulation of trust 
funds, 38; to remove negligent 
trustees, 24; to fill vacancies in 
office of trustees, 19; to report 
vacancies to Legislature, 10; to 
issue veterinary licenses, 69-70; 
to indorse veterinary licenses, 70; 
to compel attendance of witnesses, 
10. See also University of the 
State of New York. 

Regents certificates, see Certificates. 

Regents diplomas, see Diplomas. 

Registration, of institutions outside 
state, 45, 48; of libraries, necessary 
to secure subsidies, 21; of nurses, 

75-77; 

of licenses: medical, 52-53; 
dental, 60-61; veterinary, 70-72. 
Religious denominations, property 
exempt from taxation, 39. 



INDEX TO THE UNIVERSITY LAW 



87 



Religious instruction in theological 
seminaries, exempt from state con- 
trol, 10. See also Sectarian schools. 

Removals from office, by Regents, 9 ; 
by trustees, 20. 

Repeals, 25, 27, 65; effect, 25. 

Reports, from libraries, 13, 22; from 
University institutions, form and 
details, 14; 

of Regents: 14; of State Li- 
brary, 13; of State Museum, 13. 

Resolutions, Regents ' power to make, 
alter or repeal, 10. 

Rules, Regents' power to make, alter 
or repeal, 10; license examiners 
power to make, 47 ; trustees power 
to make, 20. 

Salaries, of elective officers, changes 
in, 9; of University officers and 
employees, 10; in University in- 
stitutions, fixed by trustees, 20. 

Sales, from duplicate department, 12 ; 
use of receipts, 24. 

Scholarships, trusts for, 36. 

School commissioners, may hold 
trusts, 37. 

School districts, may establish li- 
braries, 21; may transfer libraries, 

23- 

School libraries, see Common school 
libraries; Secondary school li- 
braries. 

Schools, see Academic departments; 
Academies ; Common schools ; High 
schools. 

Scientific associations, incorporation, 

15. 

Scientific collections, made by mu- 
seum staff, 14; of birds, birds nests 
or eggs, permit to make collection, 
28—29. 

Scrip, academy stock, 33-34. 

Seal of University, custody, 9. 

Secondary school libraries, law gov- 
erning, 15; transfers, 23. See also 
Books. 

Secondary schools, see Academic de- 
partments ; Academic fund ; Aca- 
demies; High schools; Institu- 
tions of University. 



Secretary of State, ex officio Regent, 
8. 

Secretary of University , official bond , 
9 ; appointment of deputy, 9 ; 
election, 9; oath of office, 9; term 
of office, 9; powers and duties, 9; 
office abolished, 5. 

Sectarian schools, state aid to, 3, 15. 
See also Theological seminaries. 

Seminaries, private, not exempt from 
taxation, 39; theological instruc- 
tion free from state interference, 
10. 

Senior Regent, duties, 9. 

Sewer systems of colleges, 40-42. 

Special meetings of Regents, 9-10. 

Specimens, intermuseum loans, 10; 
transfer to State Museum. 13. 

Staff of University, appointments, 
5, 10; salaries, 10; of State 
Museum, 13, 14. 

State aid, to sectarian schools, 3, 
15. See also Academic fund; 
Funds; Public library grants. 

State Botanist, see Botanist. 

State Constitution, extracts from, 3, 
29. 

State dental examiners, see Dental 
examiners. 

State Entomologist, see Entomolo- 
gist. 

State Geologist, see Geologist. 

State hospital libraries, 42. 

State Library, advice from officers 
of, 24; appointment of officers, 10; 
appropriation for books, 12; bor- 
rowers, 12; how constituted, 11; 
department of University, 10; 
duplicate department, 12, 24; 
hours, 12; loans, 10,' 11, 13, 24; to 
receive manuscripts and records 
"on file," 11; receipts from sales 
used for, 12, 24; subject to 
Regents, 11; report, 13; transfers 
to, 13 

State medical examiners, see Medi- 
cal examiners. 

State medical library, 12. 

State Museum, appointment of 
officers, 10; collections made by 



NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



staff, 14; how constitvited, 13; de- 
partment of University, 10; in- 
spection, 13; loans, 10; report, 13; 
staff, 13, 14; transfers to, 13. 

State officers, nia}^ borrow from State 
Library, 12 ; transfers of books etc. 
to State Library, 13. 

State Paleontologist, see Paleontolo- 
gist. 

State publications, certain, in Re- 
gents charge, 12; extra copies, 12; 
''on file," part of State Library, 11 ; 
proceeds of sales, 12, 24. See also 
Public documents. 

State Superintendent of Public In- 
struction, see Public Instruction, 
Superintendent of. 

State veterinary examiners, see Vet- 
erinar)^ examiners. 

Statistics required from University 
institutions, 14. 

Stock of dissolved academy, sur- 
render, 33-34- 

Stock corporations, dissolution, 16; 
taxes, 29-30. See also Corpora- 
tions. 

Subsidies, restriction of, 3; library, 
21—22. 

Superintendent of PubHc Instruc- 
tion, see Public Instruction, Super- 
intendent of. 

Supreme Court to control bequests, 

36. 

Surgical appliances, makers of ex- 
empt from medical law, 54. 

Suspensions, from office by trustees, 
20. 

Taxation, for public libraries, 21, 
22; organization tax, 29-30; ex- 
emptions from, 38-40. 

Technical examinations, 43-77- 

Terms defined. University law, 8, 
20; public health law, 46, 55, 66. 

Theological seminaries, instruction 
free from state interference, 10. 

Towns, may establish libraries, 21, 
42. 

Transfers, of books to State Library, 
13; of libraries, 23. 

Traveling libraries, authorized, 24. 



Trustees, term defined, 8; of colleges, 
power as to trust funds, 38; of 
schools, may hold trusts, 37; 

of academy: may dissolve acad- 
emy, 32; liability, 34; 

of corporations: one must be 
resident of New York State, 30; 
quorum, 30; powers of majority, 
30; powers to make bylaws, 30; 
application for appointment of 
receiver, 16, 32; 

of libraries: 22, 23-24, 26; re- 
moval, 24, 26; 

of University institutions: ab- 
sences from meetings, 19; no com- 
pensation. 20; ineligible as Regents, 
9; meetings, 18, 19; powers, 18-20; 
seniority, 18; women eligible as, 

19; 

of villages: may establish li- 
brary, 2 1 ; may hold trusts, 37. 
Trusts, accumulation of income, 3 7, 
38; limit of accumulation, 38; au- 
thorized, 36-37; limitation of be- 
quest, 35; validity of bequest, 36; 
duration, 37; diminution of piin- 
cipal, 38. 

Unclaimed stock of dissolved acad- 
emy, 34. 

Unification act, 4-6. 

Union schools, see Academic de- 
partments. 

United States army and navy medi- 
cal officers exempt from inedical 
law, 54. 

United States deposit fund, inviola- 
ble, 3, 15; use of revenues, 3; 
grants from, 14-15, 24-25. 

United States veterinary inedical 
officers exempt from veterinary 
law, 72. 

Universities, defined, 8; incorpora- 
tion, 15; use of name, 17, 44. See 
also Colleges. 

University institutions, see Institu- 
tions of University. 

University law, 7-27; violations of, 
17-18. 

University of the State of New York, 
in Constitution, 3 ; departments, 



INDEX TO THE UNIVERSITY LAW 



89 



9, 10; exclusion from, 14; govern- 
ment, 4, 8; institutions included, 
14; law governing, 7-27 ; corporate 
name, 3, 8; objects, 8; powers ex- 
ercised by Regents, 8; act reorgan- 
izing, 4. See also Institutions of 
University; Officers; Publications; 
Regents; Staff of University. 

Vacancies, in Board of Regents, 4, 
8-9, 9—10; in office of trustee, 19. 

Validity of bequests, 36. 

Veterinarians, definition, 66; regis- 
tration, 70—72. 

Veterinary degrees, 68, 72. 

Veterinary examiners, 67. 

Veterinary licenses, issued by Re- 
gents. 69-70; indorsement, 70; 
registration, 70-72; fraudulent, 73. 

Veterinary licensing examinations, 
68-69; admission to, 68; conduct 
of, 69 ; fees, 68 ; state board to pre- 
pare questions, 69; reexamination, 
69; subjects, 69; times and places, 
69. 

Veterinary medicine, practice of: 
law regulating, 66-73; qualifica- 
tions for, 66-67 ; nonresidents of 
New York, 72; penalties for viola- 
tion of law, 72-73. 



Veterinary students, preliminary re- 
quirements, 68, 73; exemption 
from increased preliminary re- 
quirements, 73. 

Vice chancellor of University, elec- 
tion, 9; term, 9; oath of office, 9; 
duties, 9. 

Villages, may establish libraries, 21, 
42; may hold trusts, 37. 

Violations, of University law, 17-18; 
of dental law, 62-65 ; of medical 
law, 54-55; of nurses law, 77; of 
public accountants law, 74; of vet- 
erinary law, 72-73. 

Visitation of institutions, see Inspec- 
tion. 

Vote, on establishing library may 
be required, 21; requisite to dis- 
solve academy, 32—33; to dissolve 
academy, how attested and filed, 
32-33- 

Wampum-keeper of Onondaga na- 
tion, 28. 
Waterworks of colleges, 40-42. 
Wills, see Bequests. 
Women, eligible as trustees, 19. 

Year, academic, 44. 



P-ubUsked monthly by the 

New York State Education Department 



BULLETIN 366 



JANUARY 1906 



Department Bulletin 



No. 3 



43d UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 



STATE OF NEW YORK, JUNE 28-30, 1905 



PAGE 

Plan of convocation 3 

Summary of sessions 4 

Chancellor's address 6 

The Problem of Commercial Ed- 
ucation: Pres. E. J. James., ii 
The Teacher and the Business 

Man: Pres. C. D. McIver.. 37 
Discussion: C. A. Herrick. . 45 
Industrial Education from a 
Layman's Point of View: R. 

C. Ogden 51 

Discussion on How to Fit In- 
dustrial Training into Our 
Course of Study: J. E. 
Russell 59 



PAGE 

A New College Degree: F. A. 
Vanberlip 68 

Education for Commerce in the 
Far East : J. W. Jenks 79 

Agricultural Education in Am- 
erica and its Importance to 
the Commonwealth and the 
Nation: W. A. Henry 90 

Address: W. M. Hays 106 

Ways and Means of Fitting Edu- 
cation for Agriculture into the 
SchoolCurriculum: J. R. Kirk 113 
Discussion: L. H. Bailey. . . 121 

Index 127 



ALBANY 

NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 
1906 



R386in-Os-30oo 



STATE OF NEW YORK * 

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

Regents of the University 
With years when terms expire 

1913 Whitelaw Reid M.A. LL.D. Chancellor , . New York 

1906 St Clair McKelway M.A. L.H.D. LL.D. D.C.L. 

Vice Chancellor Brooklyn 

1908 Daniel Beach Ph.D. LL.D. Watkins 

1914 Pliny T. Sexton LL.B. LL.D Palmyra 

191 2 T. Guilford Smith M.A. C.E. LL.D. . . . Buffalo 

1907 William Nottingham M.A. Ph.D. LL.D. . . Syracuse 

1910 Charles A. Gardiner Ph.D. L.H.D. LL.D. D.C.L New York 

1915 Charles S. Francis B.S , Troy 

191 1 Edward Lauterbach M.A. LL.D. .... New York 

1909 Eugene A. Philbin LL.B. LL.D. .... New York 

1916 LuciAN L. Shedden LL.B. ...... Plattsburg 

Commissioner of Education 

Andrew S. Draper LL.D. 

Assistant Commissioners 

Howard J. Rogers M.A. LL.D. First Assistant Commissioner 
Edward J. Goodwin Lit.D. L.H.D. Second Assistant Commissioner 
Augustus S. Downing M.A. Third Assistant Commissioner 

Convocation Council 

1905 Prin. Myron T, Scudder . . . New Paltz Normal School 

1906 Dean James E. Russell Teachers College 

Columbia University, New York 

1907 District Sup't Darwin L. Bardwell .... New York 

1908 Prof. George P. Bristol . . ... Cornell University 

1909 Prin. Howard Con ant .... Elmira Free Academy 



p. ot fX, 



New York State Education Department 



Department Bulletin 

No. 3 

i 

43d UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 



OF THE 



STATE OF NEW YORK, JUNE 28-30, 1905 



PLAN OF THE CONVOCATION OF 1905 

In the plan of the University Convocation for 1905 it was deter- 
mined to depart from the miscellaneous program of previous yearj 
and to give the entire time of the meeting to the intensive studj 
and consideration of one subject. To warrant this procedure, the 
subject had to be of vital interest and acknowledged timeliness to 
the educational and general public. 

In conference with the Convocation Council it was agreed that 
the one topic which overshadows all others in public interest is the 
industrial and commercial development of this countr}^ and the 
training which should be given our youth in the public schools, 
colleges, universities and special schools to best fit them for the 
changing conditions which the 20th century is bringing upon us. 

The subject seems naturally to fall into three subdivisions; viz. 
Education for Commerce, Education for the Trades and Other 
Industries, and Education for Agriculture; the arrangement of the 
program and the selection of speakers were made accordingly. 

It was desired that the leading papers be followed by thorough 
discussion. Many of the leading educators of the State were asked 
to participate, but there was no preferment on the program and all 
were invited to give their aid, in the hope of securing practical 
suggestions for the use of our school and college curriculums. 



4 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 

SUMMARY OF SESSIONS 
Wednesday afternoon, June 28 

The Ten Eyck 

3 p. m. Informal gathering at headquarters 

4 p. m. Executive session of Convocation Council 

Wednesday evening, Court of Appeals 

7.30 p. m. Registration 

8 p. m. Announcements 

Dean James E. Russell, for Convocation Council 
Prayer by Rev. D. O. Mears D.D. 
8.15 p. m. Chancellor's address 

Regent Daniel Beach Ph.D. LL. D. 
9.30 p. m. Informal reception in the State Library 

All members of the convocation and guests were cordially 
invited to meet the Regents of the University and the Commis- 
sioner of Education. 

Thursday morning, June 29, Court of Appeals 

9 a. m. Registration 

9.30 a. m. Announcements 

Dean James E. Russell, for Convocation Council 
Presentation of the subject of the convocation by 

President Edmund J. James LL.D., University of Illinois 
Address : The Teacher and the Business Man 

President Charles D. McIver, State Normal and Industrial 
College, Greensboro N. C. 
Discussion led by 

Cheesman a. IIekrick Ph.D., Director School of Commerce, 
Philadelphia 

Thursday afternoon, June 29, Senate chamber, 3 p. m. 

EDUCATION FOR THE TRADES AND OTHER INDU.STRIES 

Report of committee on consolidation of state organizations 
Dr George P. Bristol, Cornell University, Chairman 

Address: Industrial Education from a Layman's Point of View 
Hon. Robert C. Ogden, New York, Chairman Southern Edu- 
cation Board 



SUMMARY OF SESSIONS 5 

Discussion on how to fit industrial training into our courses of 
study led by 
Dean James E. Russell, Teachers College, New York 

Thursday evening, June 29, Senate chamber, 8 p, m. 

EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE 

Address : A New College Degree 

Hon. Frank A. Vanderlip, Vice President, National City 
Bank, New York, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury 
Address : Education for Commerce in the ■ Far East 

Prof. J. W. Jenks, Cornell University 

Friday morning, June 30, Senate chamber, 9.30 a, m. , ' 

Announcements 

Dean James E. Russell, for Convocation Council 

education for agriculture 

Address : Agricultural Education in America and its Importance 
to the Commonwealth and the Nation 
Dean W. A. Henry, Director of Agricultural Experiment 
Station, University of Wisconsin 
Address 

Hon. W. M. Hays, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, Wash- 
ington D. C. 
Address : Ways and Means of Fitting Education for Agriculture 
into the School Curriculum 
Pres. John R. Kirk, State Normal School, Kirksville Mo. 
Discussion led by 

Prof. L. H. Bailey, Cornell University 

close of convocation 



The opening session of the convocation was held in the cham- 
ber of the Court of Appeals on the evening of June 28 and was 
opened by prayer by the Rev. Dr David O. Mears. 

Following the prayer the annual address of the Chancellor of the 
University was delivered bv Senior Regent Daniel Beach Ph.D. 
LL.D. 



6 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 28 

CHANCELLOR'S ADDRESS 

Members of Convocation: In the absence of the Chancellor, and 
upon the invitation of the Vice Chancellor, the agreeable duty de- 
volves upon me to greet you on behalf of the Regents of the Uni- 
versity. This is your convocation. It would be superfluous to re- 
peat formal words of welcome to your own. The University Con- 
vocation is a continuous body, although not decorated with a formal 
charter. The personality of its constituents is continually changing, 
but its perpetuity is guaranteed by more than parchment authority. 
Its records of speech. for 40 years hold priceless treasures. They 
embody unity in variety, a unity not of lifeless unanimity or slavish 
concurrence in details, methods and nonessentials — a virile variety 
of treatment of topics from differing viewpoints. If those utter- 
ances could be edited for condensation only, they would make a 
most valuable textbook in pedagogy, and a comprehensive history 
in school and college development. In all these the purposes of the 
founders were faithfully and consistently observed. 

When the University Convocation of the State of New York 
was organized in the year 1863 its purpose, among others, was 
declared to be to secure an interchange of opinions on the best 
methods of instruction in the colleges and academies, and as a 
consequence to advance the standard of education throughout the 
State. In the year 1879 a further declaration of the purpose of the 
convocation was made, which shows that in those 16 years con- 
ceptions of educational work had broadened, demanding a larger 
field for discussion and effort. By ordinance of the Board of 
Regents the previous declaration of 1863 was extended so as to 
include the consideration of literature, science and art, and to ad- 
vance their standards in this State. The program prepared for this 
occasion is a logical outgrowth of that enlarged declaration. It is 
but a step from the domain of science, with all that it includes and 
implies, to the field of industrial and commercial activities. In no 
partizan spirit therefore, and with a full recognition of all the 
good there is in the old, as contrasted with, or rather supplemented 
by the new education, it is proposed to take up this year and con- 
sider exclusivel)^, for the first tinie in the history of the convocation, 
the relations of academic training to the business, industrial and 
commercial world. 

There are obvious reasons why these subjects and kindred ones 
have not heretofore been given larger prominence here. The mani- 
fold educational problems, consequent upon the marvelous growth 



1905] ' chancellor's address 7 

of the schools of all grades in the State within the last half century, 
questions of school organization, methods of instruction, the train- 
ing and qualification of teachers, pioneer work — all, at first, left 
little room for the treatment of many other topics. Added to these 
the problems of higher, education in college and university, so fully 
and ably treated in convocation year after year, it is no wonder that 
many other themes awaited later consideration. 

And now, when the times are ripe for a somewhat different 
line of discussion appropriate to this occasion, there could not be, 
I think, a more fitting period for a new departure than now at the 
beginning of a new era, marked by the unification of educational 
work in the Empire State. Nevertheless we are reminded by recall- 
ing some occasional discussions within the past 10 years, that the 
topics now presented are by no means entirely new. Although 
delayed, they have not been entirely ignored. Just now there is a 
demand for a more specific recognition of industrial and commercial 
interests in academic instruction. 

It is not my purpose to enter upon the discussion of the topics 
which are to come before you. It may be helpful if I shall state 
some facts of history, and remind you what has been done in this 
State and by the State in this regard. 

First as to 

Commercial schools 

Early instruction in these was limited to arithmetic, penman- 
ship, and a primitive kind of bookkeeping. The initiative was in 
the private business schools. From the earliest one, known as Dol- 
bear's Commercial College, founded in New York city in 1833, 
according to the records of the National Bureau of Education, to 
the Bryant & Stratton schools located in eight cities of this State 
and also in other states about the year 1853; the Eastman Com- 
mercial College at Poughkeepsie in 1859, and Packer's Commercial 
Cohege in Brooklyn; there was then what has been called the 
" golden age " of the business college. Afterwards there sprang 
up similar institutions of varying degrees of merit and usefulness. 
These being entirely private and proprietary, were not subject to 
inspection and outside supervision. They were advertised as busi- 
ness colleges, but when the law of 1892 sotight to restrict their use 
of that term, the proprietors as a rule dropped it. From 1896 to 
the present time a system of registration has been in use in this 
State. This was brought about through a conference between a com- 
mittee of the National Convention of Business Educators and the 



8 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 28 

Regents of the University. The standing indicated by registration is 
determined by inspection of the schools. This is done by a competent 
inspector, to whom much credit is due. At the outset it was ascer- 
tained that there were in the State 73 business schools. Of these 
41 applied for registration the first year. Those showing proper 
equipment and at least six competent instructors and satisfactory 
work, are entitled to full registration ; others giving evidence that 
they will in a reasonable time fulfil those conditions, are registered 
provisionally. During the past year the number of students in the 
registered business schools was 14,091. These schools are growing 
constantly in the number of students and in the scope and character 
of instruction. Advanced subjects have been added since the first 
registration, including commercial geography and the history of 
commerce, making the courses much stronger in educational value. 

These statements relate to private schools not in any way receiv- 
ing financial aid from the State. Of the schools in the University 
having courses in commercial education there are, exclusive of 
colleges and universities, 45 in all. Of these 34 are high schools, 
and' II others are of academic grade. One of them has a five 
years course ; only one a three years course ; the other 43 a full 
four 3^ears course. Their work, both in scope and quality, is fully 
up to the standards prescribed. In addition to these there are 
74 other academic and high schools that took at least live of 
the business subjects at the last regular examination, and it is ex- 
pected that most of these will in a short time develop full four 
year courses. A most encouraging feature is that in addition to the 
public secondary schools already mentioned, 421 other secondary 
schools took examinations in from one to four of the commercial 
subjects, exclusive of elementary bookkeeping. Of the 799 high 
schools and academies, business education has been systematically 
established in 540 of them. These facts raise serious questions 
and suggest obstacles. How shall room be found in the academic 
courses without overcrowding? What shall be displaced if that 
occurs? I notice with pleasure that we are to have a discussion 
on how to fit industrial training into our courses of studv. I am 
sure we shall all watch with eagerness for answer to that question. 

Another matter kindred to the general subject of commercial 
education and an outgrowth of it, is the education leading to the 
new degree of C. P. A., certified public accountant. The num-, 
ber of persons attaining that distinction by actual and thorough 
examination in this State is 316 — a worthy and most useful 
profession. 



1905] chancellor's address 9 

Education in the trades and other industries 

Assuming that this ground is covered mainly by the engineering 
courses in the colleges and in the professional schools, I call your 
attention briefly to what has been done in them in this State. 
It is well known that the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute estab- 
lished in 1824, was the pioneer school in theoretic and practical 
science, and that it was organized in 1849 upon the basis of a 
general polytechnic institute. Its course includes the recognized 
branches of engineering and its last catalogue records 375 students. 

Cornell University records a class of 376 in civil engineering, 
and 1039 in mechanical engineering. 

Columbia University, New York University, Syracuse University, 
Clarkson Memorial School, The Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, 
Union University and Manhattan College have departments of engi- 
neering. The total number of students in these courses in the 
higher institutions in the State of «New York for the year 1905, 
equals 1640. Alfred University has a successful plant and a large 
class in clay- working and ceramics. 

Academic education in agriculture 

is comparatively recent. The College of Agriculture in Cornell 
University, founded on the land grant act of 1862, was an early 
move in that direction. As set forth in the statement of that 
institution it provides for a system of education that " shall have 
direct and definite relations with the daily work of persons who must 
earn their own living in the arts and industries." It has an experi- 
mental farm, with full equipment for agricultural and horticultural 
work, a department of entomology, a chemical department and an 
agricultural library. The students in this work in Cornell num- 
ber 184. 

Beyond this academic work in the interest of agriculture, the 
State aims to impart information to its citizens by means of bul- 
letins from its Agricultural Experiment Station, and from a similar 
department at Cornell. The State Entomologist engages largely 
in the investigation of insects injuriously affecting various fruits 
and agricultural crops, and in the dissemination of information by 
means of bulletins and reports. The State Botanist also attends 
to matters in his department that relate to agriculture in any way. 

Without extended comment upon these statements and statistics 
relating to commercial, industrial and agricultural interests, we 



lO 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 28 

are justified, I think, in sa)ang, first, that the business school and 
the commercial courses have earned full recognition as most im- 
portant agencies. The day of discussion of their utility has passed. 
The old apprenticeship system in business, as in law and medicine, 
has been modified. The labors of the student and clerk in the office 
have been lightened and brightened by the instruction and guidance 
of the living teacher. 

In respect to agriculture, the mother of all cultivated growths for 
the sustenance of mankind, many things beneficial can be taught 
in the schools. I need not enumerate them. 

The results of academic training in the trades and industries are 
not yet largely manifest. It is a broad field and may include the 
whole domain of physical science. There is nothing in the material 
world reachable by the hand or conceivable by the mind of man, that 
does not or may not contribute either in matter or natural forces to 
the arts, trades and industries. As the field of research and discovery 
seems unlimited, so the factors that contribute to the constructive 
industries are equally boundless. To receive academic instruction 
in such things seems like groping in the dark unknown by infant 
hands. Nevertheless, with strong hands to guide satisfactory results 
may come. 

The achievements of discovery and invention in this young cen- 
tury appeal to our admiration and quicken the imagination. Whence 
do all these come? Are they fruits of inspiration more than of 
earth? It ma)' not be an unwarrantable stretch of fancy in view 
of the amazing discoveries in science throwing light upon old 
mysteries in nature, to conceive with all reverence and humility 
that such wonderful things may not be so much the achievements 
of unaided human genius as the unconscious obedience of man to 
the primal decree, " Let there be light." 

I am impelled to call your attention again to the character of 
the addresses, papers and discussions of former years in convoca- 
tion. They furnish examples worthy to be followed. They were 
upon the broad lines of sound scholarship. They tolerated no one- 
sided development, nor the substitution of glitter for solid acquire- 
ment. I do not apprehend that speech and Avork here, now or 
hereafter, will be upon any lower plane. Expansion of work into 
new fields should not mean the abandonment of the old. Exten- 
sion of boundaries should not imply or involve the destruction of 
cherished and established landmarks. There is ample room for 
consideration and recognition of both the old and the new educa- 
tion,, each for its special ends and aims. 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION II 

In conclusion let me urge that in all proper earnestness and 
zeal for the training of the youth, we should not forget that it is 
manifestly not alone the benefit to them personally that is to 
be considered. John Stuart Mill said : " Education is the culture 
which each generation purposely gives to those who are to be 
its successors, in order to qualify them for at least keeping up, 
and if possible for raising the improvement which has been attained.'^ 
Amplify this by characterizing culture as moral, mental, physical,, 
and as including all things that promote civilization, good govern- 
ment and good citizenship, and we have an epitome of an ideal 
education from the viewpoint of public interest and public policy. 
This attained, each generation will pass on to the next a civiliza- 
tion as good as it found. While it is true that in this country 
every child is entitled as a personal right to an adequate educa- 
tion, which may incidentally be of use to him in earning a liveli- 
hood, the greater ultimate purpose should be the education of the 
whole body of citizenship by the training and culture of its indi- 
vidual units, primarily, and even exclusively, for the good of all,^ 
in intelligence, morals, and in everything that tends to promote the 
highest civilization and conserve the common weal — the com- 
monwealth. 



Following the address of Regent Beach an informal review of 
the subject of the convocation was made by Commissioner Draper, 
in which was set forth the trend of modern development in the 
fields of commerce, industry and agricultu'-e and the demands made 
upon the educational system of the country. 

Thursday morning, June 29 
Presentation of thie su.t>ject of ttie con^ vocation. 

THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 

BY PRES. EDMUND J. JAMES, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 

Introduction 

I understand that my duty is to open the discussion for those who are to 
follow. Therefore my remarks will take the form of rather dogmatic state- 
ments put in such a form as to call forth the largest amount of dissent 
which such statements may call forth on questions about which there is 
destined to be as much difference of opinion as there is on this subject; if 
we really go to the bottom of things and raise the real issue. The point was 



12 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

brought out yesterdaj^ evening bj' Dr Draper when he said the question 
before the American people today, so far as our educational system is con- 
cerned, is, are we ready to face the issue of establishing on an adequate 
scale a system of trade and professional schools? Are we ready to face the 
issue plainly of introducing into our elementary, secondary and higher schools 
the principle of trade education, using that word " trade " in the largest 
sense? Are we willing to quit attempting to defend the introduction of 
manual training into our elementary schools and high schools on the ground 
that its sole purpose is to develop the intellectual and moral side of our 
pupils, and admit the fundamental fact that one of its great purposes is 
to- assist in preparing students to earn a livelihood and for living in a large 
sense? That it seems to me is the fundamental _ thought in this whole 
discussion. 

Now I do not deceive myself as to the improbability that the American 
people are willing to take a favourable attitude on this subject at present. 
I am inclined to think it will raise a lively discussion and the more definitely 
the issue is stated and the more it is pressed, the livelier the discussion will 
be. I am certain that the protest that one hears on all occasions against any 
attempt to make our public schools in a measure trade schools, or the possi- 
bility or desirability of introducing this element of trade education into our 
public schools, is an indication of the general feeling at present. Now, I 
believe the real essence lies in that very proposition,— are we ready to begin 
to train our American boys and girls to be efficient in the struggle for life, 
by adding to the general training one may get in the ordinary public schools 
this new element of special training for vocation. If we are not ready to do 
this, then we are not ready to deal with this question in any fundamental 
way. The real question then is, are we now ready to begin to put our 
school system as a whole in the service of that training for efficiency which 
the American people need certainly as much as any other people? 

I shall give you the summary of my paper at the very outset. And you 
will thus have before you the points on which you may express your dis- 
sent subsequently. 

My proposition, in brief, is that the wonderful expansion of our 
American system of education during" the past century has been 
accompanied by two important developments ; i. e. 

1 The increasing application of the principle of school training 
for vocation. 

2 The introduction of the ideal of productive scholarship. 

In fact it has been maintained that these two forces have been in 
large part the very causes themselves of this expansion. 

We see this most clearly, perhaps, in the universities. They 
have become, especially the older and stronger institutions, in large 
part, groups of professional schools — law, medicine, theology, teach- 
ing, engineering and farming. 

Even the colleges are developing the same way. The elective 
svstem, where the financial resources of the college are adequate, 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION I3 

permits the student to concentrate his attention on a few subjects 
and those practically professional. The graduate school is almost 
purely professional. It contains no students except those who are 
preparing to teach or for some one of the practical vocations, like 
chemist, bacteriologist etc. The senior year, and in some cases 
the junior year, in many of our institutions, is devoted in large part 
to what are really professional studies, though they are sometimes 
called preparatory to the professions. 

This development has been beneficial, especially owing to the 
application of the second principle in the higher schools ; i. e. the 
idea of productive scholarship as the basis of a true professional 
education. 

This latter in its extreme form is a German idea ; i. e. that the 
best school training for a learned profession is that which trains 
the candidate to the ability to advance the scientific state of his 
particular profession, and inspires him with the desire to do sd, 
leaving to the profession itself the actual induction into practical 
life. 

Thus the best method of training a teacher in mathematics is, 
according to the German idea, not to fill up the candidate with the 
knowledge of all mathematics, but rather to train him in such a 
way and to such a point that he may become an independent in- 
vestigator in the domain of mathematical research. In the same 
way the' training of the physician, as far as it is undertaken by the 
university, aims at making him an independent investigator of dis- 
ease, qualifying him to take up in a scientific way any special case 
of disease which may com.e up in his practice. 

What is true of the university is also true of the higher technical 
schools and increasingly so as the 3^ears go on. 

Now as the universities have thus developed in the direction of 
special and professional education for those people of the com- 
munity who wish to enter the so called learned professions, so the 
desire of the community for greater efficiency in every department 
of its industrial and comrnercial development has led to an increas- 
ing perception of the necessity of, and an increasing belief in the effi- 
cacy of specific and special training for each and every calling for 
which it is possible to work out a feasible curriculum. In other 
words, the desire of the people for a practical education has led in 
the past, and will lead still more in the future to a general accept- 
ance of the principle of theoretical and practical school training 
for vocation. 



14 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

This means, ill brief, that we are to have not simply law schools 
and medical schools and theological schools and engineering and 
farming schools ; those we have already, but schools suited to each 
and every kind of calling in which skill is a matter of any import- 
ance. It means the trade school for the artisan as well as the pro- 
fessional school for the lawyer; and the support of the latter out 
of the public treasury can certainly not be justified on any other 
grounds than those which will amply justify the support of the 
former. 

The century which is now drawing to a close will be known to 
posterity, among other things, for three great features : increasing 
wealth, rising democracy, spreading education. It will be char- 
acterized as the age of wealth, the age of democracy, the age of 
education. No preceding century in the whole history of the world 
has seen anything like the absolute and relative increase of wealth 
which has marked the past hundred years. The significance of 
this remark will be borne in upon our consciousness if we reflect 
for a moment that it is the age of steam and electricity. The power 
of men over Nature has been indefinitely increased and expanded. 
Men had used machines for many centuries preceding the dawn 
of the 19th. They had developed at certain places and certain times 
remarkable applications of natural and human force to overcoming 
the obstacles which Nature offers to man's dominion. But taken 
altogether, and taking all nations and all times, no such increase 
in human powder has ever been marked within so brief a period as 
that which we have seen within the last hundred years. Time and 
space, those two great obstacles to man's control of the powers of 
Nature, have been largely eliminated. The effective force of one 
pair of hands has been indefinitely increased. A slight notion of 
what this means may be gained by considering the fact that in the 
year 1892, even a country like Germany was reputed to have pos- 
sessed in its mills and on its railroads steam engines with an aggre- 
gate horse power of 7,500,000. As the maximum amount of work 
done by a horse power is equal to that of 42 human laborers, there 
was in the laboring force of the German Empire, represented by 
its steam engines, a total equal to the power of 350,000,000 able- 
bodied men. There were then not over 20,000,000 able-bodied 
laborers in the German Empire, and the steam engines alone repre- 
.sented therefore about 15 times the aggregate power of all the 
laborers within that domain. It is not too much to say that the 
population of the single state of Germany, with an area not exceed- 
ing that of Texas, is equal today in working force to the combined 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 1$ 

efforts of the population of the whole world at the beginning of 
the century. ThC/ United States has today within its borders an 
effective power in the engines at work, far surpassing the total 
possible power of the entire population of the world a century ago. 
In many lines of work one man, with the aid of a small machine, 
may do as much as 50 or 100 men could have done at the be- 
ginning of the century. While in other departments, owing to the 
development of the application of steam and electricity, one man 
may do what all the population of the world combined could not 
have accomplished 100 years ago. This enormous increase in the 
power of man over Nature, and the consequent increase in the sum 
total of wealth, has made several things possible which seemed to 
the men of even a century ago unrealizable, perhaps, in the whole 
history of the human race. The application of machinery upon this 
large scale makes it possible for the human being to get a sufficient 
subsistence from the soil by working a comparatively small number 
of hours and has thus given us the possibility of the leisure! which 
is necessary to the development of a higher type of civilization in 
all classes of the community. 

We are, of course, simply at the beginning of this development, 
and the achievements of future ages will doubtless cast far into 
the shade anything which we have accomplished since 1800, but 
I believe that for all time to come the last century will be known 
as the one in which the beginning of this development was made, a 
beginning so great, so powerful, so sudden, that it will strike the 
imagination of men in all future ages, and will continue a funda- 
mental epoch in the history of civilization distinguishing future 
developments from past. 

Intimately connected with this increasing wealth has come another 
development which will be no less characteristic, and that is the rise 
of democracy, the beginning of a development which will in the 
long run result in the government of the people, and by the people, 
and for the people. Democracy in this sense is something absolutely 
unknown on any large scale to any previous century. The ancient 
world produced no specimens of a democracy in the sense in which 
the United States is a democracy, or in the sense in which England 
is a democracy, or France a democracy, or even Germany, Aus- 
tralia and Italy. The political systems of the cities of Athens and 
Rome, which at one time had certain democratic forms of govern- 
ment, were based upon the slavery of the many, the absolute sub- 
jection of the mass of the people to the control of the few. No 
possibility seemed to have entered the minds of the Greek and 



l6 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

Roman statesmen that a time would ever come when all human 
beings, by virtue of the fact that they are human beings, 
should be recognized as having an equal value in the eye of 
the law, and when the normal adult males in society should have a 
direct voice in shaping and controlling the government under which 
they lived. This is an absolutely new idea in the history of institu- 
tions and it has been reserved for the last 25 years to fairly accept 
it, and thus open the era of democracy. Our own country could 
certainly lay no claim to being a democracy in any true sense of 
the term, as long as its welfare rested in large part upon the institu- 
tions of human slavery, nor had it any claim to be considered a 
democracy in the largest and truest sense of the term, nor has it 
any claim to be considered even now as anything more than a 
democratizing" community, that is a community, growing toward 
a democracy, until we have reached a time when at least every 
adult male of sound mind, shall haA^e been brought to such a point 
that it 'will be safe to permit him to have a direct and proportionate 
share in determining the policy of the government in which he lives. 
Unfortunately this time seems to be still far in the future, if the 
recent developments in the Southern States of our Union may be 
taken to indicate the line of movement. 

Prior to the year 1848 one of the most powerful and enlightened 
countries of Western Europe— Germany, had in its most important 
members no recognition in the law of any participation in the act 
of governing or legislating on the part of the great masses of the 
people. The first representative assembly with any real legislative 
power did not meet in Prussia until after 1850. Since that time, 
with giant strides, the idea of popular government has moved with 
ever increasing , force, and although we have not by any means 
solved the difficulties in the organization and working of such gov- 
ernment, we have at least arrived at a time when any other govern- 
ment is impossible. 

I have said that the rise of democracy was intimately associated 
with the increase of wealth, a fact which we are sometimes too 
prone to overlook. No large society could possibly be democratic 
which was not also wealthy. As long as the average human being 
finds it necessary to devote his whole mental and physical energies 
to the mere matter of keeping soul and body together, as has been 
■the case during all the preceding centuries of human history, there 
is no chance for a democratic government in which every man shall 
have a proportionate and equal place with every other. To demo- 
cracy, to participation in government, a certain leisure is necessary,. 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION IJ 

and until the power of man over Nature has developed so far that 
he can acquire the necessities of a subsistence in a small portion of 
his time, it is impossible to secure that amount of leisure for the 
great mass of humanity which is necessary to the development of 
free government. The only way in which a shadow of democracy 
was possible in the ancient world was to be found in the absolute 
subjection of the many to the few, who thus obtained a certain 
amount of leisure which they might devote to the higher sides of 
human civilization. In other words, a condition of practical slavery 
whether legalized or not, was the necessary condition of the great 
mass of human beings until the age of machinery made possible 
the creation of wealth which secured to the great mass of men a 
degree of leisure absolutely unknown to preceding generations. The 
men therefore who sometimes talk about the accumulation of wealth 
as a source of danger to our democracy, are prating, it seems to me, 
of idle things. One great need of our civilization, as it has always 
been, is wealth, more wealth, and even more wealth, with a con- 
sequent increasing ease of life, increasing leisure and increasing 
possibility of improvement in the great masses of the people. So 
this age will be known, in my opinion, to future generations as dis- 
tinctly the age in which democracy took a start in such a different 
way, and on such a different scale, and in which wealth began to 
increase at such a different rate as to distinguish it from every 
similar period of development in the whole history of the world. 

But this age will be known for a third characteristic, no less im- 
portant and at the same time intimately connected with the two 
preceding, and that is the ever spreading and ever deepening educa- 
tion. For the first time in all human history, we have set before 
ourselves the problem of bringing the possibility of an elementary 
education to every child in the community. We have definitely 
assumed the burden of unlocking for every person, so to speak, the 
treasures of the world civilization, or at least of giving a key to 
those treasures to every individual in society. Universal education 
has seemed to past generations, so far as they have thought of it 
at all, to be not merely an impossible and impracticable thing, but 
to be dangerous, indeed a ruinous thing, if it should be possible 
to carry it out. The Athenians educated the male free citizens of 
the Athenian state, a mere handful of the members of that com- 
munity ; the Romans educated in the same way the male free citi- 
zens of that state, a still smaller handful, and even the most ad- 
vanced of our modern European communities had never until this 
century in their utmost state of advancement, done more than to 



l8 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

propose universal education, than to talk about universal education, 
or at the most to make feeble advances toward securing it. Indeed 
the idea of universal elementary education, which involves almost 
necessarily, as a practical matter, although not necessarily as a 
logical matter, a free elementary public school, I say this idea and 
its external realization is a creation even more distinctly than 
democracy itself of the last quarter of a century. It was not until 
the waves of the Civil War had subsided in this country, and not 
until legal slavery had been abolished, that even our own American 
states took up in earnest the problem of establishing a sufficient 
number of free public schools in all parts of their territory to bring 
home to every child the possibility of such training as an elementary 
school may offer. England, in many respects the most enlightened 
of our modern states, did not grapple with this problem seriously 
until after 1870, and it was not until after the Franco-Prussian 
war that France and Italy took up in earnest this problem, and made 
such progress as to justify us in saying that they also have not 
only accepted this as a principle, but are rapidly realizing it in the 
actual institutions in the life of the people. This idea has found 
expression in the practical determination of modern nations to 
assume as a public function the burden of organizing and support- 
ing the elementary school. The extent to which this has gone one 
may find reflected in the sums of money which modern nations 
expend on elementary education. If you take the budget of any of 
our modern cities which have a life extending back over a century 
or more, and compare the total expenditures for public purposes 
today with that of 100 years ago, and note the purposes for which 
this expenditure is made, you will be struck, I think, first of all by 
the astonishing way in which the budget for education has grown. 
If you examine the budget of the city of New York, or Philadelphia, 
or Baltimore a century ago, you will find practically no sum set 
apart by those communities as communities for the support of edu- 
cation, or at least only very small sums, while you will find that 
today, the largest single item of expenditure, in all those cities is 
for education. You will find that whereas our American states 
devoted almost no money at that time, and even 50 years afterward, 
to this same end, the appropriation for education today by the 
American state government exceeds perhaps the appropriation for 
any other purpose, and even the federal government itself has been 
appropriating, in the form of grants of public lands, and lately of 
cash, enormous sums of money to the support of this same cause. 
And this same development has been no greater in the United States 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION IQ 

than in other countries. We sometimes imagine that European 
countries are devoting themselves so exclusively to the development 
of their military systems that they have no money to spend upon 
education, but as a matter of fact, even those nations which spend 
the most money upon their military systems have been increasing 
enormously in every direction the money spent upon their educa- 
tional system. 

So this age will be known, not simply as the age of wealth, the 
age of democracy, but also as the age of education. And at bottom 
these three great things are parts of one and the same thing; no 
great development along either of these lines, such as we have 
seen in this century, could possibly have occurred without a similar 
development in the others. No such development of wealth could 
have taken place except as the incident to a steadily rising standard 
of education, to an ever increasing efficiency of the individual 
laborer growing out of his education, and as a result of the count- 
less contributions to invention and to industrial progress springing 
from the growing intelligence of the great mass of the people ; nor 
would that wealth have been created except by free laborers, and by 
people who were becoming freer. No such total average output 
could ever have been associated with slave labor under any condi- 
tion, and the increase has mounted rapidly as the individual laborer 
and the laboring mass has become freer. Nor could freedom, nor 
could the democracy have been possible, not simply without the 
wealth which I mentioned before, but without education, since 
nothing is more generally accepted than the proposition that to the 
successful democracy an educated citizenship belongs. On the 
other hand, education could not have taken the shape which it has 
taken today unless society, owing to its increasing wealth, had been 
able to assume the increasing burdens connected with its dif- 
fusion, and unless, owing to the rising spirit of democracy, the 
demand for education had continually increased. Upon this 
trinity, therefore, wealth, democracy, education, will be based the 
claim of the last century to be ranked among the remarkable cen- 
turies in the world's history, and upon this trinity will be based 
the progress of all subsequent centuries to come. 

On this occasion, I desire to call your attention especially to 
one of these three features; i. e. the growth of education, and by edu- 
cation I mean the kind of training and instruction which is given 
in definite educational institutions organized for the purpose of 
giving this training and instruction. I am aware that education 
has a much larger meaning; we are educated by all the count- 



20 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

less influences of the family, church, industrial, social and political 
life which work in upon us from every possible direction. Indeed, 
we might almost be tempted to say that the sum total of those 
indirect influences is far greater and far more important than 
the sum total of those direct and specific educational agencies 
which take part in our preparation for living. But while this 
is true, these are the influences which in one way or another have 
worked upon the human being to a greater or less extent since 
the dawn of history. They have taken a peculiar and special 
coloring in this century, and under modern conditions. They 
have become more comprehensive and more intensive, and in 
any exhaustive discussion of education they would certainly have 
to be taken into accoimt, and their proper sphere assigned to 
them. But for immediate purpose today, we need not concern 
ourselves with other things than those particular educational in- 
fluences which are organized into specific institutions with 
a definite purpose of training, instructing, educating the children, 
youth and adults of a community. 

This spread of education has shown itself along every line of 
national and community life. The development of elementary edu- 
cation has been no more remarkable than the growth of secondar}^ 
and higher. This, of course, is natural, and what would be 
expected by any student of education, but it- is a fact which some- 
times has escaped the attention of the general public. No sooner 
had the elementary free school system become firmly established 
in our American states than the demand for facilities for second- 
ary education began to grow up, and we find emerging, here and 
there, at first slowly, with halting steps, finally more boldly, with 
aft ever increasing claim to consideration, and with an ever more 
rapid movement, the free secondary school, known in this country 
as the public high school. In proportion as the intelligence and 
wealth of our communities have increased has this demand for 
more and better high schools become more imperative. The de- 
velopment of this institution has been remarkable, and has had 
a most profound influence upon our American system of educa- 
tion, lower as well as higher. But even before this institution 
had taken firm root, the demand had already arisen for a still 
higher type of institution, which should express the aspiration 
of the community after a still higher education, as well as offer 
facilities for the same. We find, therefore, in most states of the 
Union, as a result of a complex of influences, which I need not 
stop to describe, the state university. Hand in hand with the de- 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 21 

velopment of this institution has gone a general enlargement and 
development of facilities and equipment, in all the higher institu- 
tions of the community, which taken together shows quite as 
remarkable an advance as on any other side of our modern life. 

On this occasion I desire to call your attention to this develop- 
ment of education to which I have referred as it has been affected 
by what may be called the principle of special or technical training. 
And in order to put this miatter into a concrete form, I may 
lay down as the proposition to which I wish especially to call 
your attention this evening, the statement, that the development of 
education in the United States during the last century and a half 
is particularly noticeable for the development of special, technical, 
professional training. 

We can not of course divide education by any hard and fast 
line into different classes, but for our special purpose we may 
divide education as a whole into two classes — general or liberal 
education, and special or professional education. By the former 
we mean that education which has for its primary object the 
general development of the individual, the training of his powers 
considered as an intelligent being; by the latter, the training of 
the individual conceived as a member of a calling, his training 
to undertake and carry out the specific duties of some special 
occupation. 

General or liberal education has sometimes been defined as 
education for living ; technical education as education for a liveli- 
hood. The former has to do primarily with the attempt to excite 
and train all the different sides of the human being. The latter 
with the attempt to train especially and particularly what may be 
called the peculiar quality of the individual with a view of prepar- 
ing him for some specific vocation. 

As I said a moment ago this division of education can not by 
any means be strictly upheld in attempting to mark off either the 
work of individual schools, the work of individual teachers, or 
the work of individual branches or departments of a school sys- 
tem. All education is liberal and general, no matter how technical 
it may be. All education is technical and special no matter how 
liberal it may be. Thus if we take those objects which are con- 
sidered par excellence, liberalizing, i. e. those underlying, common 
subjects of all education, reading, writing, ciphering, drawing, 
singing; all these subjects do not merely open the mind of the 
child, do not merely give him a general or liberal training, but 
prepare him specifically all the better for every individual occupa- 



22 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

tion he may take up, they are tools in any calling. They are, 
therefore, even in this widest and most general sense - technical 
and special. On the other hand, the most narrowly technical sub- 
jects, like technical chemistry or the study of the strength of 
materials, or mechanical drawing — all these do not m.erely prepare 
for some specific calling or some group of specific callings, but 
they also perform the function of opening the eyes and quicken- 
ing the hearing, of training the judgment to as high a degree per- 
haps as any subjects mentioned before. 

But not only are all the subjects commonly ckssed as general 
or liberalizing, in reality technical or special in the sense which 
I have just indicated, in that they prepare the persons who take 
them the better for any occupation which they may pursue; but 
those subjects which are ordinarily spoken of as general or 
liberal par excellence, i. e. the study of language and history 
and general mathematics and pure sciences or a curriculum 
based on these subjects exclusively is of itself highly special and 
technical as the whole history of our education demonstrates. 
When the proposition was made some years ago to establish 
manual training high schools, the argument was advanced against 
such a policy — that it was no part of the business community to 
look out for technical or special education; its function was com- 
pleted when it had established or maintained what may be called 
a general or liberal high school curriculum containing only 
those elements which are common to the education of all 
classes such as was characteristic of the existing general high 
school courses. An examination of actual facts showed that the 
so called general or liberal high school course was in many re- 
spects a highly technical one, at least in the common idea and 
notion of the general public. Thus it was found that the people 
refused to send their children to the high schools unless they 
were looking forward to going to college or going into some form 
of business life in which the specific knowledge acquired in that 
high school course was supposed to be of special value to them. 
It appears that the great bulk of the boys and girls in the high 
schools of even the old liberal or general type were there because 
their parents fancied that they would get something in that cur- 
riculum of special utility to them in the callings which they 
expected to take up. In the second place it was found that of the 
pupils who actually finished the high school course, the vast ma- 
jority went into a comparatively few callings, so that at any rate 
the bias produced by the completion of such a course of study 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 23 

was strongl}^ in the direction of a few specific occupations, and 
strongly away from the great mass of others. The same thing 
was true of the old-fashioned literary so called liberal general 
course in the colleges. 

Men took this course often not because they were concerned 
about getting this liberal or general training which ought to 
underlie all special training, but because they thought that the 
particular- so called liberal training of the college would prepare 
them the better for the particular calling which they had chosen. 

In spite of this consideration, however, in spite of the fact that 
all education worthy of the name is at once liberal and technical, 
or to repeat what I said a moment ago, that all general education 
is special in a certain sense, and all special education is general, 
it will still be found to be of advantage for the purpose of our 
discussion this evening, if I accept this general division as express- 
ing a certain broad distinction between the purposes, and to a 
certain extent, the functions of two great classes of schools — the 
schools which aim to give a fundamental and common training, 
that is the training common to all the specific callings, and there- 
fore, a training to be called general or liberal ; and the schools 
which take for their specific aim the purpose of training the 
individual for some specific definite calling. Now, my proposition 
is that the great improvements in American education which have 
been effected in the last century or century and a half have come 
about largely through the increasing acceptance of the principle 
that every human being ought to receive a special, specific, tech- 
nical or professional training for his future life work if such a 
training be possible. I may go further and say that the history 
of the last century in the United States demonstrates in a strik- 
ing way the growing faith of the public in the ef^ciency of 
school education as distinct from the so called practical training 
of active life ; that with every passing year -we see a wdder accept- 
ance of the proposition — that it is possible to construct a special 
school curriculum adapted to specific training for the given call- 
ing which it will be worth the while for the individual to complete 
if possible .before taking up the practical work of his profession. 
There are multiplying on every hand evidences of a growing 
belief in the superiority of the well planned, carefully elaborated, 
properly administered school curriculum as a preparation for life 
over the haphazard training of the shop, the factory, the farm, 
or the street. 



24 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 2^ 

Now, let us for a moment glance at the history of American 
education and see whether in its broad outlines this proposition 
is substantiated. If we were to take as a starting point the 
year 1750 — it is only a century and a half ago — all the original 
colonies had been established and had developed the wants and 
needs of civilized life as the standard of that time demanded. 
Some of them had been established over a century ; important 
cities had developed on the Atlantic sea coast and a high standard 
of civilization had been actually achieved at very many centers 
within what is now the limits of the United States. 

If we examine the educational system of that time we shall 
be struck by the marvelous meagerness both as to the variety of 
institutions in existence and as to the equipment for work in the 
institutions which had been established. There was generally 
speaking the elementary school, in which those children in the 
community whose parents especially desired it found an oppor- 
tunity to acquire the rudiments of an education. In New England, 
the most developed section of the country, the elementary school 
had gone hand in hand with the settlement of the community 
and every town was supposed to be looking out in an adequate 
way for this opportunity of an elementary, that is to say, funda- 
mental, general, liberal education. There was further, the gram- 
mar school, in the old New England sense of the term, the school 
which prepared for college, which took the children of the well 
to do and offered them an opportunity to extend somewhat the 
scope of the elementary training. And finally there was the col- 
lege which gave the only form of higher training which that 
community knew, and this higher training was nothing more than 
an extension of the grammar school. Language and mathematics 
formed almost the entire curriculum of the institution ; Latin, 
Greek, a little Hebrew, arithmetic, the elements of algebra, 
geometry and the Holy Scripture formed the basis of the entire 
system of higher training offered in the colonies. The college 
was intended primarily for the education of the clergymen, it 
was not only a liberal, or general course in one sense of the 
term, but it was a special or technical course in preparation for 
the study of divinity. 

You do not appreciate what this means until you look at the 
negative side of the picture aiid find out what was absent from 
this educational system. The elementary system itself was con- 
fined to reading, writing, and ciphering. Drawing, singing, 
history, nature study, manual training, any one of the numerous 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 25 

SO called fads which are valuable features in some of the best 
schools of today were conspicuous by their absence. Even in the 
grammar school and the college, of the scores of subjects which 
are today to be found in our greater colleges and universities 
which may be pursued by the individual student as branches of 
his liberal training only three or four were to be found at all. 

But even this system of higher education which was primarily 
a preparatory training for the clergymen did not offer any spe- 
cific technical or professional training such as we are accustomed 
to associate with the better organized school of theology. The 
student who desired to become a clergyman after completing this 
course in the college then took his special divinity studies with 
some practising minister. There was no opportunity for the phy- 
sician or the follower of any one of the numerous branches of 
medicine to get even elementary instruction in physiology, to say 
nothing of the technical subjects of a medical course. The phy- 
sicians, like the surgeon and the dentist and the veterinary 
surgeon, so far as tlie}^ had any training v\^hatever, were com- 
pelled to obtain it from some actual practitioner who was willing 
to take them into his office and give them such a training as they 
might acquire from watching him practise his profession. 

The same thing was true of the lawyer, and as there was no 
medical school so there was no law school in the colonies at 
that time, no opportunity to obtain any instruction in the elements 
of the sciences underlying this career. Even the teacher had no 
special opportunity to prepare himself for the work either in a 
general or special way. It was supposed that if he graduated 
at college he not only knew enough of any subject-matter to en- 
able him to teach it in any position to which he might be called, 
but that he was also thoroughly qualified from a professional point 
of view. There was no normal school, nor was there any one 
of the numerous special schools which are a striking characteristic 
of our society of today. No music school, or business college, 
or art school, no school for any one of the engineering callings. 
In a word, absolutely no opportunity for any man to acquire 
special training in preparation for the special calling or profes- 
sion. What I have described as the condition in 1750 was in 
a broad way the condition in the year 1800. The. principle of 
technical education had been recognized, it is true, by the estab- 
lishment of a medical school in connection with the University 
of Pennsylvania and by the establishment for brief periods at two 
or three different institutions, of professorships in law, but other- 



26 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

wise there was no recognition of what we are coming to feel 
is a fundamental principle of modern social, industrial and educa- 
tional life, i. e. that it is possible to offer a school training in 
preparation for many callings at any rate which should be of 
great value to the persons who are thinking of taking up these 
callings. 

It was reserved for the last century to establish at first in a 
slow and halting way, but subsequently by enormous strides, 
a vast variety of special schools in which a special preparation 
for some special calling or pursuit is offered. Broadly speak- 
ing, it was the double decade from 1840 to i860 which saw a 
distinct recognition of this principle in such a form as to give 
some slight inkling of the enormous extension which it was to 
receive within the last two decades of a century. 

The principle of technical education in the engineering pro- 
fession had been recognized by the establishment of an incomplete 
scheme of training as early as the year 1824. Theological and 
law and medical schools had been established at various places 
in the country prior to 1830, and it was the last year of the 
thirties that saw the establishment of the first normal school in 
the United States of America. But in the 20 years which elapsed 
from 1840 to i860 the number and variety of special schools 
increased with marvelous rapidity. They were years of enormous 
material prosperity in the United States ; they were years of great 
territorial expansion and a rising standard of civilization, of in- 
creasing wealth, increasing education, increasing complexity of 
social life, and increasing difficulty in the great material problems 
which the country was called upon to face. 

The start which was taken in these two decades has been kept 
up with marvelous energy and marvelous persistence during the 
40 years which followed, and today we find most striking evi- 
dences in every direction that whatever else the last century may 
have brought to us it has established once and for all the feasi- 
bility, desirability, nay, necessity of special technical professional 
education for all classes in the community, for all occupations for 
which such a training can be elaborated. 

As in so many other departments of human life, especially in 
this countrji', this development had been very unequal in many 
parts of the country, and in many kinds of callings very incom- 
plete. It is perhaps more complete today in the field of medicine 
and in the field of the engineering professions than in any other 
departments. 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 27 

I can remember the time when it was no uncommon thing to 
hear a physician advise a young man who desired to practise 
medicine not to go to a medical school, on the ground that he 
would be wasting his time, advising him rather to go into the 
office of a practising physician and there learn the business prac- 
tically. I think it is safe to say today that the physicians who 
would give that advice are very few and far between and belong 
only to the most ignorant of their class. There are perhaps 
dentists who would give the same advice, but they are becoming 
fewer with every passing year. 

The principle for which we are contending has not by any 
means acquired the same wide validity in the field of legal edu- 
cation as in that of medicine. It is still no uncommon thing for 
the lawyer to advise a young man not to go to a law school 
on the ground that legal training in the schools is nonsense and 
far inferior to the practical education offered in the lawyer's office. 
I still find many clergymen who depreciate the value of theo-> 
logic training in a theologic school. It is still true that th,e 
average teacher in our public and private schools has not received 
any special technical or professional training in pedagogy or the 
various branches of knowledge connected with it. It is still true 
that the average college professor of the United States performs 
his work with the simple knowledge of the subject which he had 
upon leaving college; to say nothing of devoting any time or 
attention to what may be called the purely professional aspects 
of his work. Many are the engineers who have not had the 
benefit or the injury, if you choose to call it so, of special school 
training in the technical institutions. But in all these depart- 
ments the victory of the well planned, well ordered curriculum 
over the irregular and uncertain training of so called practical 
life is becoming more and more assured. 

The very meaning of the term university in its modern sig- 
nificance shows this change of attitude, this change of mind. 
What is a university? It is today a great complex of professional 
or special schools having for its object the special, technical, or 
professional training of its students for the callings which they 
expect to take up. ' Nearly all universities have, it is true, also 
a college as a constituent part or appendage, but the college in the 
sense of a department in which liberal studies are oflrered to stu- 
dents who do not yet know what they want to pursue as a 
livelihood is destined to play an ever decreasing part in our great 
universities. Our so called graduate schools are purely technical 



28 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

or professional departments. You will find no students at work 
in them except those who are preparing for some definite pursuit; 
they specialize their work, they devote their attention to few sub- 
jects. They are looking forward chiefly to an academic career 
and expect to become teachers in high schools, colleges or uni- 
versities. 

The technical school in the narrow sense has played a most 
important part. 

Its function has been a twofold one of great advantage to all. 
The school of technology has in the first place done valuable 
service for the community in offering a special training for cer- 
tain specified callings. It has thereby conferred a great service 
on the individual benefited by qualifying him better to earn a 
living. It has done a still greater service to society by supplying 
it with a more numerous and a far better personnel in the techni- 
cal callings. But it has done more than this — one of the most 
striking services it has done for education in general is to be found 
in the reflex influence which the whole idea for which it has 
stood has exercised upon higher education in the United States. 
In the field of medicine, and law and theology, and above all in 
teaching there has been great need of a high degree of special, 
technical, professional training. The technical school, the schools 
of technology, the schools of engineering and polytechnic insti- 
tutes and by whatever other name they may have been called 
exercised a steady, persistent and powerful influence in educating 
the people as to the desirability of a higher standard of technical 
and professional excellence. 

Such schools as the Massachusetts School of Technology, the 
Rensselaer Polytechnic, the Stevens Polytechnic and the correspond- 
ing department of our state universities have exercised a most pro- 
found influence upon university policy and university ideas. If 
the engineer or the architect or the chemist needed a special train- 
ing, certainly the physician, lawyer and clergyman and teacher 
needed it as much. And as these technical schools have demon- 
strated their right to an existence by the value of their great ser- 
vice to the community, so they have demonstrated the need of a 
sounder training in all the other callings for which it was not their 
function especially to care. 

The technical school has not only trained the American public 
to believe in engineering education, but it has given a powerful 
impetus to all kinds of special and professional education in other 
departments of life. 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 29 

To illustrate still further the idea I have in mind, I should like 
to formulate briefly from one point of view — that of the, student 
of economics and politics — the function of an American system 
of education and you will see in this formulation and in the brief 
argument which I may connect with it, my own conception of the 
fundamental importance of technical education, using that term 
in the largest sense in any national scheme of training. 

What, then, should be the fundamental object of an American 
system of education, looking at it from an economic point of 
view? My answer in brief is the fullest possible development 
and training of all forms of ability, mental, moral and esthetic, 
which at present exist or which may be cultivated in the Ameri- 
can people. This does not mean merely the development of the 
ability of a few individuals to the highest point, or of a few 
types of ability in many individuals, but of all useful types of 
ability in all individuals. 

We may draw a useful comparison from the economic w.orld. 
In my view the economic policy of a country should be directed 
toward developing all its material capabilities. All the advantages 
of soil and climate should be exploited to their utmost. Its natural 
water ways should be corrected and improved. New means of 
communication should be opened. Its rivers should be bridged, 
their navigable channels deepened and widened ; railroads built, 
canals opened ; turnpikes constructed ; its mineral wealth made ac- 
cessible and available ; its agriculture encouraged along all possible 
lines; its live stock improved, new and better crops introduced, 
its forests cultivated, fish planted in all its streams, in a word, 
everything which will develop the material resources of the country 
and place them at the disposal of man. This demands a careful 
and well considered policy, directed toward developing our indus- 
trial resources, manufacturing, commerce, mining, agriculture 
and forestry. Is there a gold mine or a silver mine or coal mine 
in some remote portion of the national domain? If so, the eco- 
nomic policy of the country should find it out and make it a 
part of the available resources of the nation. Is there a possibility 
of some great crop which will revolutionize agriculture, and make 
a thousand grains grow where one grew before, if so, the economic 
system should discover this crop and naturalize it. Is there the 
possibility of some great and fruitful industry which can bring 
the blessings of civilization to an otherwise barren waste? If so, 
the economic system should introduce and develop it. 



so 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

In the same wa}^ the educational poHcy of the country should 
be directed toward calling forth and training all of the resources 
of the human being, so to speak ; to exciting and developing all 
the various forms of faculty, using that term in the good old New 
England sense. Is there the possibility of a great singer in some 
outlying rural district? If so, our educational system should find 
it out, and having discovered it, it should never let go its hold 
on the boy or girl — sent of the gods — until the very highest pos- 
sibility has become a reality. Is there in some lonely schoolhouse 
among the hills, a possible Edison, or Newton, or Faraday, or 
Darwin, or Stevenson, or Webster, or Elliott, or Gilman, or 
Brooks, or Beecher, our educational system should seek him out 
and put him on the highroad to his loftiest usefulness. Is there 
in some city school on some bench in the slums a boy who has 
it in him to be a great farmer, our school system should reveal 
that fact to him and put him in the way of this real opportunity. 
No less should the school system take hold of the child of moderate 
or mediocre abilities and by bringing out the best that is in him 
make a new center of life and power where none would other- 
wise be. 

Our common schools then should not only teach the absolute 
minimum, not merely impart a certain amount of instruction, 
which every child in our society should have ; but it should en- 
gage very largely in what for lack of a better term I must call 
the exploring work ; i. e. its curriculum should be so constituted 
that it may assist in discovering the capabilities of children. It 
must then furnish them so far as possible efficient assistance in 
developing their capabilities in every direction, and this means 
a vast variety of technical, professional and special schools of 
high school grade, of college grade and of university grade. This 
development may be illustrated by the needs of commercial 
training. 

We are now ready, I believe, to take a great step in advance 
and to wrestle with the problem of providing a special training 
for that large proportion of our young people who expect to go 
into mercantile, commercial or business life. Thus far, with few 
exceptions, the only special provision for such training has been 
made by the so called business or commercial colleges, which 
are such a striking characteristic of our American educational 
system. Proprietary institutions nearly all of them ; having a 
purely practical — one might almost say material aim. I do not 
wish to say a word against them. I believe they have done and 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 31 

are doing' a most valuable service both to the young people who 
attend them and the business classes whose interests they sub- 
serve. I have no sympathy with the current slurs upon their 
function or their character. Such belittling criticism as is usually 
meted out to them springs, it has always seemed to me, from 
ignorance of the work of the schools and the practical needs 
of our American life. Lincoln has well said that you can fool 
some of the people all the time ; and all the people some of the 
time ; but not even the shrewdest of knaves can fool all the people 
all the time. The fact that year after year young people (who 
have to earn their own money) can be found by the hundreds 
and thousands who will pay high rates of tuition for the teach- 
ing of these schools and that they will advise their friends to 
do the same thing, and will send their own children to the same 
kind of schools is, to my mind, a proof of the valuable service 
they- are rendering our society, which the unanimous testimony 
of all the college presidents in the country to the contrary, would 
not weaken in the least. 

They are, however, usually of a purely elementary character, 
far from being as efficient for the purpose as they should be even 
In the best specimens, and in their worst they almost justify the 
severest things said about them. 

Now even this work I believe our public school system should 
take up, and our endowed academies and institutes should cultivate 
and foster because I believe they would do it better and under 
better surroundings than the average commercial college can 
do it. They could turn out stenographers and typewriters and 
bank clerks of a higher type because the spirit of the school would 
be more liberal and educative. 

The easy objection to this is that this would be pa3dng for 
trade and professional education! Of course it is. But by what 
system of reasoning can you justify the support of high schools 
to prepare the children of the well to do for college and the pro- 
fessional school as is done now in every state of the Union ; or 
the support at public expense of universities where the children 
of the well to do can get the training for the practice of medi- 
cine, or law, or divinity, or engineering, or farming as is done 
in nearly 40 states of the Union, and yet deny all opportunity 
to the children of the less fortunately situated to get a training 
which will prepare them to be more efficient members of society 
in their field of work? 



32 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

The properly organized, , well equipped commercial high school 
such as exists in France, Germany, Austria and most other 
European countries, will serve this purpose. I believe that every 
large city in this country should have such an institution, and 
the large cities several — schools which would insist thoroughly 
in the disciplinary and liberal quality in their curriculum, while 
at the same time the}' would offer the opportunity to get that 
practical knowledge and skill which could facilitate the obtain- 
ing of employment. If the curriculum is properly constituted 
and properly taught the young people will get a valuable mental 
discipline and culture, though it may not carry with it a knowledge 
of the philology or history of the wonderful peoples of antiquity. 

But in our scheme of national education, we should not stop 
with providing facilities for commercial training for pupils in 
our secondary schools. We must advance to the higher schools. 
We must prepare to train leaders in commerce and business- and 
not merely clerks and bookkeepers. ,We must insist that the col- 
lege and universities shall turn their attention to training men 
for the careers of railroading, banking, insurance, merchandizing, 
as they now do for law and medicine and engineering. 

The common answer to this by institutions that are unwilling 
to adopt innovations or have no money to establish new depart- 
ments is : The best training for business is a general college educa- 
tion which will unloose a boy's powers, set him intellectually and 
morally free, and then let him go into the practical work. It has 
not been so very long since we heard that doctrine preached in 
regard to the training of the clergyman, lawyer, physician, dentist, 
engineer, farmer, teacher. It is the same old objection which 
has always been made to any kind of special, professional or 
technical education. 

Surely we need such education badly enough if it be found prac- 
ticable to elaborate a curriculum. 

Look at the state of the business world today even in the most 
successful and commercial countries. We have the greatest banks 
in the world ; and the greatest bankers. Yet look at the banking 
system of the country ! In a chronic state of fear bordering on 
a panic because of the obscure system of government finance, 
and yet no bankers or statesmen seen to have been developed 
thus far who can devise a scheme which will be practicable and 
acceptable at the same time. I do not suppose that a lot of col- 
lege professors constituting the faculty of a school of commerce 
could devise such a scheme — I know them too well to dream 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 33 

such a thing- — but I do believe that if such schools turned out 
young men with a sound training in the sciences underlying this 
great department of business some of them would become wise 
enough in the great school of life to solve this and similar prob- 
lems as their brothers from the technical schools do over bridges 
and over skyscrapers. 

Look at the condition of our railway system today. We have 
the greatest railways in the world; the fastest long distance 
trains : the lowest long distance freight rate : the ablest railway 
managers, and yet who will say that conditions are even approxi- 
mately satisfactory from any point of view? Who does not be- 
lieve that if our railroad men were better educated and trained 
as a class we should have a better managed railway system? 

It has grown clear beyond their abilities to grasp or control. 
A prominent merchant in Chicago assures me a freight car leaves 
the city of Pittsburg today for Chicago much as the old time 
sailing vessels left New York for London. It is launched upon 
a trip whose duration no one can foretell. Not even the system 
of wireless telegraphy enables any shipper or railroad official to 
trace its course. After the lapse of many days it may arrive at 
Chicago only to be lost in mazes of a freight yard whose intrica- 
cies the combined wisdom of the freight agents of Chicago can 
scarcely trace. What do the long history of railway bankruptcy 
(over three fourths of the railway mileage in this coimtry has 
passed through bankruptcy in one form or another) and recent 
consolidation of railways mean except that a majority of the men 
who have been in charge of railways for the last 50 years have 
not understood their business? They managed so poorly that 
bankruptcy finally stared them in the face, in spite of such an 
abundance of traffic that at times they could scarcely move their 
trains. Take the whole system of trusts and combinations which 
is exciting such universal attention. Many are the conspiring 
causes leading to this marvelous development, economic, social 
and political. But no one can doubt who studies the question 
that one of the prime causes is the inefficiency, ignorance, lack 
of courage, and initiative enterprise of so many of our business 
men. Statistics show that a majority of the men who take up 
a business career fail. Messrs Morgan, Rockefeller, Harriman, 
Hill etc. are able men — marvelous men, but they are largely so, 
relatively speaking because the average man engaged in busi- 
ness is such a small man. Like his counterpart in any other 
calling, he is timid, distrustful, resourceless, helpless in the face 



34 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

of a sudden crisis, ignorant, uneducated, untrained, even in his 
own business. And thousands go from one branch of business 
to another — failing in all alike. The people perish from lack of 
knowledge even as they did 2500 years ago in the time of the 
Hebrew prophet. 

Who can doubt that our business classes, like all other classes, 
need education, training, not in the classics perhaps, though I 
have no objection to that, of course — quite the contrary in fact — 
but also in the principles underlying their own practice. 

Do not mistake my meaning. I am not here talking of the 
successful business man, of course, but of that great majority 
who fail, if statistics are to be believed. I go even further. It 
is well known that the man who has a genius for business will 
succeed, training or no training — or rather he is sure to get his 
training in the business. So the man who has no sense for busi- 
ness will never succeed no matter how much training he receives, 
or rather he can never get a training no matter how long he toils 
at it. 

The right kind of training, however, will facilitate success even 
to the genius ; it will minify failure even to the dullard in this 
line, while it will do an enormous amount for the average man 
forming the vast majority in this as in other occupations. It 
will render success for him more certain ; and make failure more 
rare. A general training of this sort would make such perform- 
ances impossible as the presidents of our great insurance com- 
panies have been guilty of. The remarkable development of our 
society in its economic, social and political aspects has caused a 
marvelous development in our educational system, and at the same 
time has determined the form and substance of this education. 
Our schools have, of course, had a great influence on our economic 
advance, but the latter has had a determining influence on the 
former. 

It may well be questioned whether it is a great medical profession 
which has created the great medical schools or the great medical 
schools which have created a great medical profession. They have, 
of course, reacted on each other, and the truth is, perhaps, that they 
have each been created by circumstances outside of both. 
. An advancing arid educated society demands by the very laws 
of its own development an educated and trained body of leaders 
in all departments of its life. This bod}^ of men it will have. If 
life itself produces them without the intervention of the schools, 
well and good ; we may safely leave it to life. If life fails to do 



1905] THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION 35 

this and the schools have any thing to offer we may be sure that 
their services will be in demand. I believe that we have reached 
a time in this country when all conditions are favorable to larger 
development of special training in our secondary and higher schools 
for the future business man. 

In the first place, the country demands now as never before, and 
the demand will become more and more imperative that its business 
men shall be educated gentlemen as well as good business men; 
and experience teaches that the rank and file of a profession or 
calling will get a high degree of education only in connection with 
professional or special training. 

In the second place, the business men themselves are beginning 
to demand of their sons who will succeed them in business a higher 
standard of education than they accepted for themselves, and they 
are looking about for a center of study and curriculum which will 
not wean their boys from business, but will stimulate their interest 
in business while it qualifies them for its problems. 

In the third place, the youngster who feels within him the desire 
of going into business is now asking himself as his predecessor 
never thought of doing — now, is there any school where I can pre- 
pare myself better for my future career, and so he is looking about 
for just this opportunity. 

In the fourth place, the progress of the economic and social 
sciences has finally begun to give us a body of doctrine and knowl- 
edge which furnishes us the requisite means of training the intel- 
lect by the study and application of principles at the same time 
that it supplies a mass of fact which interpreted by the principles 
may become the basis of practical training. 

And finally the colleges and universities themselves are waking 
up to this need as never before and they are all asking, what can 
we do to supply it. 

President Wilson of Princeton asked sometime ago, " Why, you 
wouldn't have, the colleges teach business, would you?" Most 
certainly we would, and if not the colleges then the universities and 
all institutions which aspire to be in that category. 

Twenty years ago when I first took up the subject of higher com- 
mercial education my voice was that of one crying in the wilder- 
ness. The University of Pennsylvania led the way. But it remained 
for nearly 15 years without an ally. And then the other universities 
began to wheel into line. California, Chicago, Wisconsin, Michi- 
gan, Ohio, Illinois followed within the space of five years. Colum- 



36 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

bia has announced its intention to follow as soon as it can get the 
money. It is only a question of a brief period when all our leading 
universities will be committed to the policy. 

As the University of Pennsylvania in its Wharton School of 
Finance and Economy was the first university to lay out a college 
curriculum for the future business man, it was natural that the 
city of Philadelphia should have been the first city to incorporate 
in its high school system a distinct recognition of the value of this 
commercial training in secondary education. Other cities had pre- 
viously established high schools — with two or three year courses, 
called commercial, but they were simply commercial colleges of the 
ordinary type supported by public taxation. The Philadelphia 
school was the first experiment of a modern type. New York fol- 
lowed on a large scale and it will only be a short time when other 
cities will do likewise. 

In closing I wish to repeat what I said above, viz, that the most 
cogent ground for my belief in the steady, irresistible development 
of this movement is to be found in the character of our civilization. 
Ours is a commercial and industrial as well as agricultural country. 
Our great leaders for a generation to come will be our business 
men. But our country is becoming civilized and educated. We 
shall insist that our leaders shall be educated and trained men. The 
rank and file of no great body of men ever became educated and 
trained except in connection with a training which leads directly 
to their calling. Hence a great commercial school will be developed. 
As these schools must base their training — if it is to be higher 
training at all — on the sciences underlying the art they will be most 
easily and effectively developed in intimate relation with the other 
schools which train for the highest sort of leadership, and those 
schools make up the university. Plence the home of the highest 
sort of commercial training, like that of the highest sort of any 
kind of training, will be the university. We may accelerate the 
movement somewhat if we work for it ; we may retard it a little 
if we oppose it, but in either case its progress is sure, its ultimate 
victory inevitable. 

MONOGRAPHS, PAPERS, AND ADDRESSES ON COMMERCIAL EDUCATION BY EDMUND 

J. JAMES 

1 Das Studium der Staatswissenschaften in Amerika. Conrad's Jahr- 

biicher for Nationalokonomie und Statistik N. F. : VIT Band. Jena 
1883. 

2 Outline of a Proposed School of Political and Social Science. Phila- 

delphia Social Science Association 1885. 



1905] THE TEACHER AND THE BUSINESS MAN 37 

3 The Study of Politics and Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Philadelphia 1889. 

4 Schools of Finance and Economy. Address before American Bankers' 

Association. Saratoga 1890. 

5 Economic and Social Aspects of Public Education. American Institute 

of Instruction. Boston 1891. 

6 The University and the Pligher Education of Business Men. National 

Education Association. Toronto 1891. 

7 A Plea for a Commercial High School. Address before the American 

Bankers' Association. San Francisco 1892. 

8 Philadelphia's Need of a Commercial High School. Address before the 

Philadelphia Board of Trade. Philadelphia 1892. 

9 Education of Business Men in Europe. Report to the American Bank- 

ers' Association, New York, 1893. Ed. 2. Chicago 1898. 

10 What should be the Curriculum of the Commercial High School? 

Address before the Educational Club of Philadephia 1894. 

11 The Business Man and Higher Education. Missouri Bankers' Associa- 

tion 1896. 

12 The State University and the Higher Training for Business. Address 

before the State University of Missouri 1897. 

13 The Modern University. Commencement Address before the University 

of California 1898. 

14 The Public High School and Commercial Education. Report of the 

Chicago Educational Commission 1898. 

15 The Function of the City University. Commencement Address before 

the University of Cincinnati 1899. 

16 Commercial Education. Monographs on Education in the United 

States. Department of Education for the United States Commission 

to the Paris Exposition of 1900. 
Nos. r, 2, 5, 13 and 15, discuss the subject of commercial education only 
incidentally as a part of the general work of the university or as that of 
special departments of politics and economics. 



THE TEACHER AND THE BUSINESS MAN 

BY PRESIDENT CHARLES D. MCIVER, STATE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL 
COLLEGE, GREENSBORO N. C. 

The general theme of this convocation seems to be the proper 
recognition of industrial education as it relates to general scientific 
and literary culture. I take it that the object aimed at in your 
program is to define this relation and to secure a general recogni- 
tion of it among all classes of citizens. A greater sympathy on 
the part of every class of workers in the world for the work of 
every other class is necessary. I hope, therefore, that what I 
shall say upon the subject, " The Teacher and the Business Man," 
will be in accord with the purpose of this meeting. 



3^ 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

Of the various classes of workers to whom the world is in debt 
for the progress of its civilization two important classes (and each 
an essential class), frequently appear to be in open or secret con- 
flict. One class, led by the teacher, the preacher, and the editor, 
uses all the money it can command to convert into ideas. The 
other class, led by the merchant, the banker, and the manufacturer, 
uses all the ideas it can command to convert into money. The 
extremist among the former class, in his zeal, is apt to under- 
value money because he knows that real ideas, the outcome of 
correct thinking, result in noble ideals. The thoroughgoing money- 
maker, on the other hand, too often regards an idea as of no con- 
sequence unless it can be converted directly and immediately into 
dollars. 

There is, however, a sensible middle ground between these ex- 
tremists where well regulated citizens may stand. Money is worth 
nothing without ideas and ideals, and yet ideas and ideals can 
make little headway in promoting civilization without the sym- 
pathy and the cooperation of wealth and wealth producers. There 
would be fewer extremists on either side of the proposition and 
more general progress in the world if there were more knowledge 
of each other's work and a closer bond of sympathy between the 
typical teacher and the typical business man. A prominent col- 
lege president and party once visited the mountains of North 
Carolina, and spent the night with a typical mountaineer. As 
they were entering the mountaineer's home, the old man said 
to the college president, " I guess you 'uns knows a good many 
things that we 'uns don't know nothing about." To which the 
college president replied as modestly as he could : " I presume 
that is true." " And I guess," said the mountaineer, " that we 
'uns knows a good many things that you 'uns don't know nothing 
about," to which the visitors laughingly assented. The old moun- 
taineer did not smile but replied solemnly, " Well, mixin' will larn 
us both." 

It would be easy to show where the business man generally 
falls short of his obligation to the work of the teacher and the 
unwisdom of this course ; and if I were addressing a company 
of business men I should discuss that phase of the question ; but 
as I am speaking to representative teachers and educators of a great 
State, I desire to call special attention to where we, as a profession, 
fall short of our obligation and opportunity. 



1905] THE TEACHER AND THE BUSINESS MAN 39 

Educational leadership 

Aggressive educational statesmanship among teachers and pub- 
lic officials is the need of our time, and every state that has not 
developed such leaders will do so within the next five or ten years. 
We have made some headway in this direction in North Carolina 
recently, and decided educational progress has been the result dur- 
ing the past four years. Little of this progress, however, would 
have been possible but for the long continued agitation for the 
past fifteen years by the teachers themselves, who must always 
and everywhere be pioneers in the great movements of civilization. 
Their patient sowing has prepared the way for the great reaping 
of the present and the greater reaping of the future. The preacher 
must lead the battles of the church, the lawyer is the natural 
leader of legislation, especially as it relates to civil rights and 
courts of justice, the physician leads in sanitary legislation, and 
the banker in financial thought; so the teacher, who knows the 
entire educational question from the standpoint of the child, the 
schoolroom, the teaching profession, and the citizen must point 
the way in matters of education. If we can not do this, then 
society will finally demand teachers who can do it, and the sooner 
the demand is made and met, the better it will be for the world. 
The teachers of this country must learn to become tactful mixers 
with men and active agitators for more liberal educational invest- 
ment. To some extent we are doing this already. Undoubtedly 
the teacher is more influential as a citizen than ever before. We 
have passed away from the time when the old woman, being asked 
how many children she had, replied, " Five — two living, two dead, 
and one teaching school." 

Until recently almost no candidate for political leadership ap- 
peared before the people of North Carolina outside the cities, 
advocating an increase of taxation for schools. But two years ago 
I was startled when on Thanksgiving day I heard a clergyman in 
his prayer express gratitude for the spread of the local taxation 
idea. The last democratic platform of North Carolina rejoices 
in the educational activity of the people, and for the first time, 
so far as I know, in the history of political platforms, expresses 
gratitude to the teaching profession in the following language: 
" And we further express our cordial commendation of the work 
of the teaching profession for the mental, moral and material ad- 
vancement of the people, and pledge for the future our best 
endeavors to strengthen and increase the usefulness and efficiency 
of our whole public educational system." 



40 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

111 the newspapers of North CaroHna a few da3'S ago, there 
appeared the advertisement of a large commercial establishment 
headed : " The teaching profession underpaid. Forceful, wide- 
awake teachers in demand in other callings." The following lan- 
guage is used in the first two paragraphs of the advertisement : 

It is a well recognized fact that the teaching profession is less 
adequately compensated than any other, and that no other calling 
includes in its ranks so many underpaid men of force and talent. 

It is also true that the forcible, wide-awake teacher is in demand 
more and more in other fields of endeavor just as honorable and 
far more remunerative. 

Your attention is called to these last three incidents to show 
how thoroughly the agitation, begun and continued by the school 
teachers of North Carolina, has permeated its entire life. With 
the pulpit grateful to God for the spread of local taxation, and 
the dominant political party of the state expressing its gratitude 
to the teaching profession for agitating questions the very men- 
tion of which, fifteen years ago, frightened the average politician, 
and with the commercial inteiests not only recognizing and adver- 
tising the fact that the public does not adequately compensate 
teachers for their work, but also paying them the compliment of 
trying to tempt them into business, we can almost see the " promised 
land." 

Compared with the large investments made by many wealthy 
states in other sections of this country, North Carolina's figures 
would seem insignificant, yet I have heard of wealth}' states, dead 
and shrouded in self-satisfaction, with which I would not be will- 
ing to exchange educational conditions. I would rather be a 
healthy man at the foot of the mountain advancing steadily and 
with the upward look of hope and faith than to be a corpse 
on the peak, or the blase traveler who has gone over the 
entire road and is slowly descending while possessed with the 
delusion that he is standing still on the summit. When a man 
is on the right road it is not of great importance whether he be 
at one point or another. The direction in which he is moving and 
the rate of his speed are the important questions. Tht glory of 
the struggle to which Southern educators are called and the pros- 
pect of certain victory is such exhiliarating inspiration that I feel 
sorry for those in other sections who have not the opportunity 
and for those in our own section who lack inclination or the resolu- 
tion to participate in the struggle. 



1905] THE TEACHER AND THE BUSINESS MAN 4I 

Most serious educational problems not peculiar to any section 

It is not my purpose, however, to discuss questions peculiar 
to one state or one section of the country. I do not hope to enter- 
tain you by solving or even announcing any new problems. If I 
were to suggest a new one it would be, " What shall we do with 
our problem solvers ? " Many of the so called problems would 
solve themselves if we could have an epidemic of lockjaw or palsy 
among the solvers. I shall not discuss new questions nor mys- 
terious doctrines. Sam Jones, the Georgia evangelist, when discuss- 
ing the mysteries of the Bible once said, " The mysteries of the 
Bible do not disturb me ; it is the things I understand that give 
me trouble." 

Teachers' salaries 

In studying the educational conditions of the various statew, 
as my limited time has given me opportunity, I have been amazed 
to find that with all the differences of climate, population, indus- 
tries, and wealth, the essential educational needs of New York 
and of North Carolina are not so different as might be expected. 
Both states are wrestling with the question of school consolida- 
tion; both states are laboring under the delusion that they can 
save money by employing low priced teachers, and statistics show 
that New York, like North Carolina and all the other states, still 
regards a carpenter or an ordinary laborer with very little skill 
as deserving better annual compensation than is paid to its elemen- 
tary teachers who are the builders and sustainers of its civilization. 

The average annual salary of elementary teachers in the rural 
sections of the United States where more than half our population 
lives, is about $300, which, all things considered, is less than the 
average wages earned by unskilled labor in the fields. The mini- 
mum salary of teachers in New York ought to be $500. The 
minimum salary in Maryland is $300, and Indiana, West Virginia, 
and Pennsylvania have set an example to the other states by 
establishing by legislation a minimum salary rate. 

Defect in the teaching profession 

W^hose fault is it that more than half the citizenship of America 
is trained by teachers whose average salary is less than a dol- 
lar a day for the working days of the year? Directly and indirectly, 
it is largely the fault of the teachers themselves. The trouble 
is that the teacher is not such a citizen as he ought to be. The 



42 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 2g 

lawyer is not only the adviser of his clients in the office and 
their representative in the courthouse, but he is the civic guide 
in his community especially as to lawmaking and the management 
of the details of courts of justice. The physician not only heals 
his patients in their homes and at the hospitals, but he is the 
adviser of his community on sanitary legislation. In other words, 
the lawyer and the physician not only do their professional work, 
but they are citizens of the community in which they live. Likewise 
the school teacher should be not only the teacher of the youth of his 
community, but also the most influential adviser on all matters of 
legislation that pertain to schools and the rearing of children into 
useful citizenship. Every community, and nearly every family, has 
its hero physician — a kind of local oracle — its hero lawyer, its hero 
banker or business man, but the hero school teachers are dead. 
We do not live with our contemporaries but are content to spend 
our time almost exclusively with the generation which is to follow 
us. Our voice does not have due weight in our own generation 
even in legislative matters relating to education. Of all the skilled 
workers in the world the teacher is probably the only one who 
is ever refused the privilege of selecting the tools with which he 
will work or the weapons of his own warfare. I have seen text- 
books decided upon by a committee, not a member of which had 
been in a school for twenty years, and the committee's only 
influential adviser seemed to be a lawyer who was paid an attor- 
ney's fee to give the advice. Imagine, if you can, carpenters 
allowing brick masons to select their tools, or fishermen allowing 
field hands to determine for them the character of their fishing 
tackle or the bait that shall be used ! 

What is a citizen? 

What is a citizen? It is a person who does the work of his 
particular calling according to the best of his ability and who 
contributes something in thought, leadership, or other service to 
the public welfare- I once asked a class in civics to describe briefly 
an ideal citizen. A young woman gave this answer: 

He is a man who works and who earns a living for himself 
and for those dependent upon him; who pays his taxes promptly 
and cheerfully; who obeys the laws of his state and country and 
who studies those laws with a view to helping to improve them ; 
he must love his country ; in time of war he must be willing to 
give his life for it, and in time of peace he must not complain if 
called upon occasionally to contribute a quarter to a torchlight pro- 
cession or a free barbecue. 



1905] THE TEACHER AND THE BUSINESS MAN 43 

If the teacher will only be this kind of citizen he can influence 
the opinion of his contemporaries, but if he lives exclusively with 
children, and receives such meager compensation that he can not 
mingle with the world either through its literature or through 
travel or through daily association with the business people of 
his own generation, he must wait until he is dead before his 
opinions on civic matters have any weight. I do not mean to 
imply that all lawyers are citizens or that all physicians are citizens. 
The fault that is almost universal with our profession is a fault 
common to a large part of every profession and calling. Frequently 
the business man is only a mere money-maker, 

I do not forget that the teachers of this country are the seed 
corn of its civilization. It is their business to hand down from 
one generation to the next the best that their own generation can 
do and know and be and dream. They are the seed corn and none 
but the best and strongest is good enough to be used. We ought, 
however, not only to train children to become good citizens but we 
ought to help teach adults what true citizenship means. 

Taxation not a necessary evil 

There is a common error among people that taxation is a curse, 
or at best, only a necessary evil. Some one has said in another 
connection, "If it .is necessary, it is not evil; and if it is evil, it 
is not necessary." The fact is that taxation is the mark of civiliza- 
tion. The savage alone is exempt from it. Let us teach the world 
that liberal taxation, fairly levied and justly used for the public 
good, is a blessing. One reason that the compensaton of teachers 
is small is that we have never had a large enough company of bold 
educational leaders who were determined to m?ke the people see the 
truth in regard to taxation and in regard to teachers salaries and 
other educational investments- If we are willing to go to the tax 
books and find out how many taxpayers there are in our commu- 
nity, and, by making a calculation, show how few there are who 
are contributing in taxes as much as $5 or $10 a year for the 
public school system, we would make many a man ashamed of 
himself, who is now complaining bitterly because he imagines that 
he is paying the entire school tax of his community. Let us 
teach honestly and boldly that education is not only the best thing 
in our civilization for which public money can be used but that 
with the exception of ignorance it is also the most expensive. 
What does education cost? 



44 ■ 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

The cost of education 

The elements in the cost of education are three : money, the 
teacher's Hfe, and the pupil's drudgery. 

An educated man or woman at 21 years of age has cost some 
one of some institution about $5000 in money, but this is the 
smallest part of the cost of his education. 

The second element, the sympathy and vital force expended on 
the part of his teachers, if they have done their full duty, is a much 
greater and much more precious expenditure. 

But more important than the money and the teadier combined 
is the drudgery invested in education by the person who is trained. 
Education can not be given to any one. It can not be bought 
and sold. It is as personal as religion. Each one must work 
out his own mental and spiritual salvation. This is the fact that 
makes democracy possible. It is the salt that saves the world. 

Parents and philanthropists and cities and states can provide 
the money and furnish the opportunity; the teacher, if what he 
ought to be, can furnish the encouragement and inspiration, and 
all this ought to be done in generous and masterly fashion ; but 
the principal ingredient in education must be furnished by the 
self-denying drudgery of the student. He is the pearl of great 
price for whom we can afford to sell all that we have and in 
whom we can afford to invest it. Probably not one child in ten 
can be persuaded to do the drudgery necessary for scholarship. 

But the public welfare, the preservation of the ideals of civiliza- 
tion and even the production of wealth depends upon that one 
tenth of the population. The world can ill afford not to tax 
itself to the utmost to secure leaders of thought. 

When at a banquet George Peabody, the great philanthropist, 
made his first donation to his native town of Danvers, now Pea- 
body Mass., he was not present himself but sent with his dona- 
tion the following sentiment as a toast : " Education, a debt due 
from present to future generations." Education is not a charity. 
A boy or girl can not be pauperized by giving him or her a chance 
to drudge for a period of fifteen years at the hardest labor ever done. 
We must not only do our duty as teachers in the classroom but let 
us use our influence as citizens to persuade the men and women 
of today to discharge their debt to the generation that has pre- 
ceded them by the most liberal provision for the generation that 
must take their places. 



1905] ' THE TEACHER AND THE BUSINESS MAN 45 

DISCUSSION 

CHEESMAN A. HERRICK PH.D., DIRECTOR SCHOOL OF COMMERCE, 

PHILADELPHIA 

I am very sure that the chairman of this meeting has expressed 
the sentiment in the minds of all of us that a discussion is 
entirely out of place after the impression that has been made by 
these masterful addresses. I want to express my appreciation of 
the help Dr Mclver has given me today, and of the great work 
he is doing in his own state in the advancement of the high ideals 
for which he has just spoken. It was my good fortune to spend 
some time in his state and to know from personal contact of the 
great educational reform in which with President Alderman, now 
of the University of Virginia, and Hon. Charles B. Aycock, formerly 
Governor of North Carolina, Dr Mclver has had a very large 
part. I shall never forget a statement of Dr Alderman to the 
effect that it used to be that the county courthouse was the chief 
center of interest, the thing about which the people talked and 
where they found the inspiration for their lives ; but Dr Alder- 
man says of North Carolina, and I believe it is coming to be true 
in other parts of the South as well — and it certainly ought to be 
true in a larger degree in this fair land of ours — that the school 
and the things for which the school stands are the center of life. 

There is- another personal acknowledgment for me to make in 
the discussion of this morning. I wish to express my great in- 
debtedness to President James, a man under whose instruction I 
sat for several successive years and to whom I owe more than 
I can tell in inspiration and in stimulation for the work which I 
have later undertaken to do. 

In attempting to gather up some of the threads of this discus- 
sion it may be that President James will pardon me if I attempt 
to interpret and restate some of the things that he said. It seems 
to me in the first place that President James has almost defined 
anew for us professional and technical education ; with him a 
professional and technical education is liberal ; his trade school 
is not a trade school in the old traditional, conventional sense of 
the word, but a school which gives breadth of training, one which 
gives an attitude toward life as well as toward a trade or calling; 
a trade school is thus one which furnlishes the broad funda- 
mentals of a particular occupation and sends out the product of 
the school to serve his apprenticeship in the actual work of the 
world. The best professional schools today, I believe, are those 
that give a broad training in the great fundamental principles 



46 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

of the professions. We have cut out of professional training a 
vast deal of the minute and detail of the professions. We do 
not try to equip the practitioner with every possible bit of informa- 
tion, w^ith specific solution for every problem that will arise in 
the future practice of his calling, i. e. minutiae and detail would 
be largely forgotten in any event and when the future practitioner 
needs them we know he can very readily acquire them if he has 
the proper discipline of mind and attitude toward his work, that 
is, if he has been grounded in the great fundamentals of his pro- 
fession. 

And what is true with regard to the professions is true with 
reference to preparation for a career in industry or commerce. 
We have today had set before us the ideal that men should be 
prepared to serve an intelligent apprenticeship. They should 
be sent forth equipped to do the work of a particular trade or 
calling and not given ready to hand every bit of information that 
will be needed. We have sometimes had the thought that it was 
the business of the special school to equip the follower of a par- 
ticular calling with every detail that he might need, but we are 
coming more and more to depart from that ideal and to hold to 
the other view that if the future practitioner is grounded in the 
fundamentals of his calling he will himself take care of the details 
as he goes out into practice. The Baldwin Locomotive Works does 
not want employees trained in their trade, they want them 
thoroughly instructed in drawing, familiar with the principles of 
engineering and having some conception of materials ; they want 
apprentices with that sort of preparation that they can train to 
do the work in their own establishment, and it is that kind of 
applied education that will be of most worth to our young people. 
Some have had the conception that our schools of commerce were 
going to turn out trained and finished business men who could 
go into a great export house and carry on commerce with dis- 
tant parts of the world and immediately and directly become 
directors of great industrial enterprises. I do not believe that we 
shall ever accomplish that result. The best we can hope to do 
is to give our young men a grounding in the principles which 
underlie their future callings, give them a professional attitude 
and an insight into and love for their work, a determination to do 
the work to which they go with their best effort and with their best 
intelligence; and if we can accomplish that much in the special 
commercial school we shall have realized the ideal which President 
James has set before us today. 



1905] THE TEACHER AND THE BUSINESS MAN 4^ 

I am not sure that I follow President James's statement con- 
cerning the character of the trade school he would have. One may 
doubt whether it is the proper business of public education to 
attempt to reproduce in the form which he suggested at the close 
of his address the old-time commercial school or business col- 
lege or the trade school in a narrow sense. It seems to me that 
there is a fundamental distinction that we should here make 
affected by the people who want to get their training in the shortest 
space of time. If they want that sort of thing they ought to be 
required to pay for it. But when we come to education that is 
founded upon public support we should consider not the particu- 
lar individual, but in a broader way the entire community of 
which the individual is a part, and we ought to consider the 
broader training which will result in a better community life and 
any public opinion which we endeavor to form by these discus- 
sions should be favorable to that broader education. The com- 
munity needs the preparation for a broader citizenship rather than 
the training for a narrow specific trade. 

I believe further in the statement of the second speaker that the 
teaching profession has too largely been in the world but not of 
the world. Teachers have set themselves peculiarly aside. It is 
not a new thing that is here noted. It is the old distinction be- 
tween the world and the cloister that prevailed in medieval times. 
We have met it with regard to every branch of our education. 
I can remember when the distinction was very sharp indeed 
between the so called " hayseed " farmer and the college trained 
farmer; when the scientific agriculturalist was looked upon as a 
bookman who did not know what he was dealing with ; and on 
the other hand this person looked upon the practical farmer as 
ignorant and narrow. That was the case also with regard to our 
engineering and technical education at one period of its develop- 
ment, and that is the case now with regard to a broader development 
of commercial education. Schoolmen pride themselves on lack 
of the qualities which make business men successful, and business 
men pride themselves on the possession of those very qualities. 
They are somewhat like the Pharisee in Holy Scripture who 
thanked himself that he was not like other men in general and in 
particular that he was not like some particular man. Society has 
fallen into the way of regarding the teacher as being outside the 
pale and as having little in common with other people. I have in 
mind the director of a large and important commercial depart- 
ment who served in that position for many years, but who was 



48 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

without business instinct or business experience and who habitually 
overdrew his bank account ; and I heard recently in a gathering 
of teachers a man make the statement that he was notoriously 
unable to manage his finances and often had to borrow money 
from the other members of his family before the end of the month. 
I meet frequently business men who are disposed to cast reproach 
upon books and the influence of books. They point to themselves 
and say " I began as a boy of 13 or 14 in the office and I worked 
my way to the head of the business and I think that is the thing 
to do." 

Lack of understanding has led the school and the business world 
to fall more and more apart. But taking that as a fact I want 
to say two or three words with regard to ways in which that 
line of division may be broken down. I can of course only make 
suggestions along these lines. In the first place it seems to me 
that we ought to bring more of the business world into the school 
by way of counsel and advice. We ought to seek out the repre- 
sentative business men of the community in which we reside and 
we ought to learn enough of their business so that they will re- 
spect us and be ready to cooperate with us, and let us cooperate 
with them in making the work of the schools better. We ought to 
become factors in the community; and we can get a patronizing 
attitude from our business friends or a cooperative attitude from 
them according as we do or do not understand something of the 
work that they are doing. 

Not only ought we to seek these men for advice but we ought 
also to bring them from time to time into the school and ask their 
aid in carrying their ideas into operation; and I have found in 
my own experience a readiness and a capacity on the part of repre- 
sentatives of the business community to come into the school and 
talk about their work. In this way we will broaden and enrich our 
school curriculums. Addresses of the sort mentioned should be 
followed by class discussions and quizzes which will make sure 
that the material which they present is understood and that it is 
coordinated with the other work of the school. We will thus encour- 
age more practical work in the school, broaden the school horizon 
and prepare those who go out of the school to meet the conditions 
of the actual world. But this is not all we will do. Immediately 
and directly that sort of thing will have its result upon the men 
who come. While they are instructing us we will also be instruct- 
ing them. The very fact that a business man is asked to talk about 
his business dignifies it in his own mind. He will raise his ideals 



1905] THE TEACHER AND THE BUSINESS MAN 49 

and standards and he thus becomes a better man in his caUing. It 
is just here that we are a success or a failure in bringing the spirit 
of the actual world into the school. We have somehow the false 
conception that if we have carved panels and plate glass and mahog- 
any furniture and if we have the school fixed up so that it looks 
like an office or a bank, that is all that is necessary. But I want to 
say that these are dead things and you might have all the business 
furniture in Christendom in a school and yet fail to breathe into 
that school the life and spirit of the world outside ; and to my mind 
there can be no force going into a school worth more for its up- 
building on the practical side than the bringing of representatives 
of the world into the school and hearing from them of their work 
and coordinating that work with the work of the school. 

There is another aspect of this question touched upon this morn- 
ing that stirs me very deeply; that is the demand which the life 
of the present places at the door of every educational institution. 
The words of President Roosevelt in his address at Harvard yes- 
terday serve as a suggestion that we need men with high ideals 
in public life, and we need them just as much in business and in 
the professions ; and it is for the establishment of high ideals in 
these several callings, for the dignifying and broadening and enrich- 
ing of these callings by putting instruction on them into the schools 
that we ought particularly to work. We had also yesterday a 
declaration from three new directors in the Equitable Insurance 
Company that they needed directors in that company who would 
regard as a distinct violation of trust the use of the funds of the 
company directly or indirectly in the promotion, underwriting or 
syndicating of new or uncertain enterprises, or in the investment 
of such funds in speculative stocks or securities ; and further that 
men who are more concerned in making money for themselves than 
in discharging a sacred trust should not be directors in any life 
insurance company. These are high ideals and it is only by bring- 
ing the commercial world into the school and projecting the school 
into the commercial world than these ideals will be realized. In brief 
it seems to me that it must be borne in upon us by public events, 
by these circumstances and by a multitude of others, and by the life 
of the cities and the nation that we are going through a great 
economic and industrial change, almost an industrial revolution — 
destructive of life, destructive of property, destructive of morals. 
I saw recently a most startling tabulation of the killed and wounded 
in the great battles of the Civil War, and the killed and wounded 
annually on the railroads of the United States and in the Pennsyl- 



50 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

vania coal mines; the loss of life which stirs our deepest feelings 
when it happens in war is permitted to go on unchecked in our in- 
dustrial and commercial enterprises and without disturbing us in the 
slightest degree. Our great strikes are destructive of life through 
violations of law and also through the suffering which they cause. 
Incompetents are being crowded out and are lost to civilization ; and 
all this goes back to our system of education and demands that we 
train a higher type of men than we have trained heretofore and a 
higher type of men than we are training by holding tenaciously to 
inherited and traditional forms of education. 

Thursday afternoon, June 29 

Convocation called to order at 3.10 o'clock, Regent Daniel Beach 
in the chair. The chairman announced that the first order of busi- 
ness would be reports of special committees. 

Dr George P. Bristol — At the last meeting of the convocation 
a year ago, after some discussion on the floor and particularly after 
a very earnest address of the Commissioner of Education a com- 
mittee, of which I had the honor to be named chairman, was 
appointed to investigate the subject of a possible consolidation of 
the various state organizations now existing in this State. 

The committee has met; we have conducted correspondence and 
we have been looking into the question and even discussed it. The 
committee finds three bodies of teachers in this State and we find 
that there is a general agreement among the teachers that we have 
too many state organizations ; too many organizations with annual 
meetings, an attendance upon them involving considerable expense ; 
too many organizations to make it possible for the teachers of New 
York State to have any one single way of expressing themselves. 
When it comes to a hard and fast agreement upon some satisfactory 
scheme for improvement and for bettering our present condition 
there is but little unanimity of opinion; and so, Mr Chancellor, 
on direction of the committee I wish to make a report that the com- 
mittee has studied the question intrusted to it and wishes to report 
progress and express its belief that satisfactory means of union 
will be found and to respectfully ask that the committee be con- 
tinued for another year. 

Chairman — If there is no objection the report will be received 
and the committee is continued as requested. 



1905] EDUCATION FOR THE TRADES AND OTHER INDUSTRIES $1 



EDUCATION FOR THE TRADES AND OTHER 

INDUSTRIES 

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION FROM A LAYMAN'S POINT OF VIEW 

HON. ROBERT C. OGDEN, NEW YORK, CHAIRMAN SOUTHERN EDU- 
CATION BOARD 

My appearance as a speaker in this presence suggests that I am 
here in a position analagous to that of the frightful example at 
a temperance lecture. In the attempt to express some impressions 
of a layman concerning education for industry my task is to present, 
and personally illustrate, the appeal of the uneducated. 

My first impression is that most positively I represent the class 
for which I am to speak. The attempt to find the bearings of this 
occasion has brought vividly to my own consciousness my ignorance 
of the general conditions of education and more especially public 
education. It is clear to my mind that I am in this respect only 
one of a very numerous class. 

Residents of New York city may learn casually from a brief 
newspaper item that in the last fiscal year the appropriations for 
public education in their city were, in round figures, $40,000,000; 
that this sum was realized from four different sources of taxation 
and was distributed upon a half dozen lines of expenditure. Men 
think of financial questions in millions, but with the great majority 
the remoteness of personal relation with any of them dulls individ- 
ual interest. Actual millions by hundreds, thousands of millions in 
stock certificates make the warp and the woof of current com- 
mercial news. Thus it comes about that the senses are so dulled 
by figures as to cause statements about great aggregations of money 
to fail of impression. The lack of civic pride, a deficient sense of 
public responsibility, careless familiarity with great figures of muni- 
cipal expenditure, all combine to create ignorance and indifference 
with the average citizen in respect of public education. The same 
condition exists in regard to the higher institutions of learning. A 
small academic circle maintains an active interest in Columbia Uni- 
versity and its colleges. New York University, the College of the 
City of New York, but these titles, with that of the public school 
system, are but nebulous terms to the vast majority of the people. 

This condition should not exist. The statement of it is doubt- 
less dull and trite. But nevertheless a campaign of education is 
needed whereby the comfortable, wellfed, wellclothed, wellhoused, 



52 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

smug, self-complacent people of New York should be instructed 
concerning" the fountains of intellectual life in their own community. 
At this point both the ignorance of the intelligent and the ethical 
sense of the righteous demand skilful treatment. The fine boundary, 
if such a line exists, that marks the border between intelligence 
and godliness is difficult to find and the attempt would be needless. 
If, however, popular knowledge respecting the constructive force 
of education as now proceeding in our country could prevail, many 
of the cheap, pietistic platitudes concerning materialism and com- 
mercialism would fall powerless. Every one knows only too well 
that the tendency to measure all things in money terms exists. It 
gives a foothold for current cowardly cant upon the decadence of 
the national conscience. Like the servant of the Hebrew prophet, 
good people stand aghast at the things that appeal to sight and hear- 
ing and cry, "Alas! What shall we do?" Just here comes in the 
prophetic power of this and similar organizations. The need of 
American democracy is stronger backbone, a larger development 
of faith. That faith will follow a greater knowledge of the vast 
forces now working for intelligence and righteousness in this land 
of ours. Traditionalism needs to learn that change is not of neces- 
sity decay, that progress is multiform and many-sided. 

I have no apology for this little wandering in a field not con- 
templated by my instructions — it is simply the call of the ignorant 
to a convocation of the wise. And yet the suggestions I have ven- 
tured to make may be entirely within the scope of education for 
industry from a layman's point of view. If my facts are truly 
facts, they indicate a field of industry for educators. 

Possibly, an illustration of popular ignorance may be found in 
the fact that to a vast majority the terms " manual training ", 
" industrial education " and " technical education " are interchange- 
able and synonymous, having practically the same meaning. It is 
important that the distinctions between these points should be known 
and understood by every intelligent person, but for my present 
task their exact definitions may be dismissed. From a pedagogic 
standpoint education for industry presents many interesting angles 
for study and discussion, but none of these details at present con- 
cern us. To the man of affairs education for industry requires a 
much broader definition than industrial education and even techni- 
cal education. The demand for larger industrial efficiency is even 
greater than yet recognized by the greatly increased educational 
opportunity. The scope of educational theory should be so 
broadened as to include the needs of commercial and industrial, 



1905] EDUCATION FOR THE TRADES AND OTHER INDUSTRIES 53 

equally with professional, life. Educational practice should send 
into the world of work boys and girls, young men and young women, 
who may desire special training, equipped in some degree for 
specially selected occupations. 

The demands of the mechanical and scientific trades and of the 
learned professions for specially trained candidates are admitted, 
but the numerous and diverse occupations, each requiring special 
knowledge by the worker, having to do with the distribution of 
merchandise seem thus far to have escaped the particular attention 
of educators. 

Ample illustration of the public demand for intelligent service 
and the lack of supply for that service can be found in the experi- 
ence of retail merchants, and more especially in the management 
of the large concerns that concentrate in one organization the 
handling of many diverse sorts of goods. 

These establishments of the larger sort need many sorts of ser- 
vice. Daily mechanical needs call for carpenters, plumbers, steam- 
fitters, electricians ; executive requirements call for many sorts of 
accounting, for stenography and typewriting; and merchandise 
management must command accumulated knowledge of markets and 
products. Everything is special and technical, but the merchant 
must depend, save only in mechanical service, upon men and women 
specially educated by himself or by some other merchant. 

Changing conditions not only call loudly for changed service, 
but give new and wide opportunity. General public intelligence 
grows apace in respect of taste in selection and knowledge of the 
merits and qualities of articles and fabrics. Persons having money 
to expend upon the decoration and furnishing of houses, or upon 
articles for personal use involving c[uestions of art, require, in mak- 
ing a transaction, intelligent and well informed service concerning 
the particular goods under consideration. But more especially the 
merchant needs trained sales persons, possessed of the intelligence 
to present his wares with knowledge to the intelligent and with 
instruction to the ignorant, persons who can speak with the con- 
fidence born of real knowledge upon the merchandise they are em- 
ployed to distribute. These conditions are repeated throughout the 
whole vast collection of different classes of goods, staple and fancy, 
prosaic or elegant. 

Into technical occupations like these thousands of young people 
are annually seeking entrance from the high schools and grammar 
schools. They come with high hopes, with honest pride in the suc- 
cessful result of graduation examinations, and confident that, with 



54 43^^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 2 9 

education secured, they are in position to rightfully draw upon the 
world for a good place in its service. 

But, almost without exception, this great contingent comes to the 
wage-earning, self-supporting period of life without any special 
knowledge of the particular things with which they are to deal, 
and so deficient in practical knowledge as to raise a serious question 
as to the quality of the education upon which the State expends so 
much money. Incidentially, it may be asked whether the addition 
of a moderate sum would not vitalize and perfect, to a point of 
practical efficiency, the rudimental education now in vogue. 

The attempt to present a statement of the case in hand opens a 
wide and bewildering and impossible range of suggestion, from 
which it is not easy to select desirable points for consideration. 

A few simple illustrations may, perhaps, make my meaning more 
intelligible. A young man or well grown lad presents himself for 
employment and suggests furniture as the sort of merchandise 
which his taste and preference indicates as interesting and there- 
fore the best line for his endeavor. But he knows nothing about 
furniture and his employer must become his instructor. His real 
technical education must go forward in such haphazard fashion 
as the exigencies of the business may permit and the boy's en- 
thusiasm and wit may inspire. He knows nothing of the various 
woods from which furniture is made, and their characteristics, 
the particular uses to which each may, with greatest advantage, 
be applied; the countries or states from which they come; their 
comparative values. He has no knowledge of construction, the 
manner in which joiner work should be done for durability, and 
thus lacks the ability to judge of the mechanical quality of his 
merchandise. He has no knowledge of decorative art, is ignorant 
of the various schools and periods that supply the features in 
shape and ornament of nearly all furniture. The want of this 
knowledge makes it impossible for him to think clearly or speak 
intelligently upon even the simplest questions that arise in the 
business of his choice. Thus he is constantly exposed to mortifi- 
cation and ignorant failure. 

How is he to get the required knowledge? In a business even 
above the average grade he finds himself among older men whose 
training has been deficient as his own. The average of them have, 
perhaps, a little superficial knowledge, a smattering only of tech- 
nical terms that convey but slight meaning to their alleged minds 
and that communicate even less to the minds of any with whom 
their duties bring them in contact. Only in the case of a beginner 



1905] EDUCATION FOR THE TRADES AND OTHER INDUSTRIES $5 

in furniture possessed of rare initiative and extraordinary perse- 
verance, with ambition far beyond his environment, the ten talent 
youngster, will there be an advance beyond the dull dead level of 
mediocrity out of which he is expected to exact the technical 
training for his life work. 

Had the boy in question the opportunity for a thorough course 
in manual training, carpentry or cabinetmaking ; nature study in 
respect of woods ; and a course of instruction in decorative art — 
all life would have taken on a different tone for him. Given 
these chances, he would have started trained, and not handi- 
capped, for the business race, free and hopeful — not confronted 
with his own ignorance, not weighed down by the ignorance of 
others. Working out an intellectual idea closely associated with 
beauty and art, his life (more completely rounded) would be spirit- 
ually joyful and materially successful. 

Or, again, a young woman just out of school seeks a busi- 
ness woman's place. She also thinks her education should be the 
passport to agreeable employment in some branch of merchandise 
toward which her taste may lead. Laces may be her choice. 
Equally with the lad in the furniture is she discounted by ignor- 
ance. She knows nothing about the history of the art of lace- 
making, the place of laces among the fine arts, the countries pro- 
ducing them, terms of classification, the uses, the differences between 
the products of the hand and the machine, and the information that 
will distinguish between values. Her technical knowledge must 
be acquired from an environment of ignorance relieved only by 
such trifling knowledge as she may acquire from the association 
in stockkeeping and handling of laces as mere merchandise by 
others whose educational limitations were a reflex of her own. 

These roughly stated illustrations may stand for a long line 
of similar conditions of deficiency. Thus is created a great gulf 
between young people who are compelled to earn a livelihood and 
the conditions that confront them at the threshold of the mercan- 
tile world. A recitation of this long and lengthening line of con- 
ditions does not concern our present purpose. If I understand 
my task correctly, it is to discover, if possible, from a worldly 
and practical standpoint, whether there is a lack in providing educa- 
tional methods of preparation for life and living. Or, again, upon 
the assumption that the overwhelming mass of our people must 
work for a living, is there a missing link in our education for 
industry ? 



$6 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

It is my belief that there is not only a missing link but an 
absent chain, not only a gulf but a great chasm. The considera- 
tion of what has been accomplished in certain lines of education 
for industry does not concern this discussion except the mention 
that the splendid achievements in mechanical and scientific educa- 
tion should be subjects of gratitude to every sincere American, 
not only for progress secured but for the prophecy of further 
attainment. The business of the hour is to find the undone margin. 
Hundreds of thousands of young men and women must find the 
beginning of a career, or perhaps a full life work, in selling goods. 
But I have yet to learn of any public school, or other regular 
institution of learning, that has taken up the study of the subject 
of how to sell goods. Special private schools exist for this pur- 
pose, and some of them display positive ability. Young Men's 
Christian Associations have classes for the instruction of salesmen 
in decorative art as applied to furniture, carpets, upholstery and 
wall finish. Trade journals print primers of instruction upon 
various lines of goods. If energy, intelligence and capital can find 
successful employment for private gain, and philandiropy find place 
for service in teaching for daily work, why is not the question 
worthy of attention by public educational authorities? 

Other tens of thousands must be employed as merchants clerks. 
Why not then a comprehensive study of the theory and practice 
of merchandizing? I know perfectly well about certain instruc- 
tion in bookkeeping and forms of business transactions, but I 
am not aware of any systematic public instruction upon the princi- 
ples of the conduct of business, including auditing, cash handling, 
accounting, the receipt and delivery of merchandise, the moral 
obligation of perfect accuracy. 

In this connection it may be quite proper to ask why so few 
of the thousands of stenographers and typewriter operators are 
so poorly equipped for the technical work they assume to perform? 
Why the slightest capacity for correspondence is so rare in that 
numerous class who apply for positions as experts? Occasionally, 
some high school graduate will appear with some knowledge of 
rhetoric and fair capacity for the use of English who is also trained 
in stenography and typewriting, but, so far as my observation goes, 
the occasion is so rare as to excite unusual remark. Possibly, 
the reason is that the commercial world is compelled to rely upon 
Christian Association classes and schools of business for short- 
hand and typewriter operators rather than upon students of public 
schools and private institutions in which the subject should receive 
the care and attention it so richly deserves. 



1905] EDUCATION FOR THE TRADES AND OTHER INDUSTRIES 57 

It is quite evident that industrial and commercial education 
for industry are correlated at very many points. Knowledge of 
wood, metal, leather or textile working is immensely advantageous 
in many lines of merchandising. A clothing merchant knowing 
tailoring, a hardware merchant knowing metal working, a furni- 
ture merchant knowing cabinetmaking, a wool merchant knowing 
textile manufacturing — each in his own special occupation will be 
vastly the better and abler if possessed of mechanical knowledge 
of his merchandise. And the reverse is true — every mechanic will 
be the better for some knowledge of general business. 

Much is heard of the frills and fads of education. Many things 
that may seem fanciful to the professional educator may have 
a clear value to the man in the thick of practical affairs. Not 
long since we were laughing loudly at the name and purpose of 
domestic science, but now we are showing our admiration and 
respect to the science that is reforming thousands of homes and 
making more orderly, and therefore more happy, still other thou- 
sands. Many of us with no capacity for scientific statement are 
feeling in many ways the power of the scientific spirit, the potency 
of the scientific method. 

Probably at no one point in our entire system of education is 
the need for a thorough scientific method so keenly demanded as 
in the matter of provision in our public education for the train- 
ing" that shall bring every young man and young woman, willing 
to receive it, up to the entering point of active business life pre- 
pared to do something that the world requires to be done. 

The employer who needs to have his work done better demands 
it with almost despair in voice and manner. He feels that the 
character is not lacking in American youth, but he knows from 
long, painful and discouraging experience the loss and disappoint- 
ment that come to him through the crudeness, the narrowness, 
the ignorance, the superficiality of the young element upon which 
he has to depend for the proper care of his affairs. He reasons, 
and reasons rightly, that something must be lacking in the method 
by which the young intellect is brought to the birth of active 
responsible business life. 

The young life of the country demands it. The incalculable 
loss of time and effort in the long stern chase for the knowledge 
that proper education can easily be made to supply in advance. 
The vast loss in earning power caused by technical ignorance that 
the school can easily remove. The gross injustice of an education 
tliat does not educate, of preparation that does not prepare, of 



58 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 2g 

the omission to reveal real conditions, with teaching of how to 
meet them. The absence of charm in life and work that comes 
from the training of the mind to the world of interest that inheres 
in common tasks. 

Young America has a divine right to ask the reason why educa- 
tion has, to so great a degree, withheld the needed preparation for 
the vital elements of business life — all life. 

Society demands it. The widening range of knowledge demands 
service in trade that will be responsive to human need. Just 
so far and so fast as men and women come into the larger life 
that arises from a comprehension of beauty, a knowledge of art, 
in the same proportion will trade be compelled to answer with 
larger intelligence. How daily needs, and the methods of their 
supply, enter into social service is a natural suggestion of our 
subject. Like several others it must be passed with scant 
recognition. 

This threefold cry of the public, the employer, the employee 
must be heard, will be heard. It is an echo of the dogma that 
business must be ranked with the learned professions. It is the 
voice of democracy emphasizing its protest against the aristoc- 
racy of education. It is a draft of human need upon human 
intellect. 

Scientific education for commercial industry is just a single 
element in the great advance movement to which this entire 
audience is in some form committed and is promoting. It is a 
service that is to make prosaic things interesting, barren things 
productive, to cause scales to fall from blind eyes that they may 
witness the revelation of bounty and beauty in nature. So farming 
will become a learned profession, dreariness, loneliness and bar- 
renness will disappear from many a dull farmhouse, and rewarding 
dollars spring, at the demand of science, from a heretofore reluc- 
tant soil in volume so vast as to match the imaginary figures of 
present fanciful finance. 

Thus loo, the sneer " the department store " will pass and 
that great embodiment of executive organization, which com- 
mands capital, science, energy, originality as servants, will be 
recognized in its varied social service as a people's university. 
Thus material, industrial, commercial life will become humane, 
interesting, spiritual through the progressive power of practical edu- 
cation. 



1905] EDUCATION FOR THE TRADES AND OTHER INDUSTRIES 59 

DISCUSSION ON HOW TO FIT INDUSTRIAL TRAINING INTO 
OUR COURSE OF STUDY 

JAMES E. RUSSELL LL.D., DEAN OF TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA 

UNIVERSITY 

" How is it that the United States can afford to pay a half dollar 
in wages when w^e pay a shilling, and yet compete with us in the 
markets of the world?" This is a question addressed to industrial 
England by an English business man whose knowledge of industrial 
conditions in three continents qualifies him as an expert. When Mr 
Mosely put that question he thought the answers could be found 
in American education. Accordingly he invited a score or more 
of the leading teachers, ablest scholars and keenest investigators 
of Great Britain to help him study American schools and methods 
of teaching. 

What was the result? In the report of the Alosely Commission 
we can see ourselves as others see us — some others, at any rate — 
critics who tell us some unpleasant truths. To a man these English 
experts declare that it is not because of our schools that we suc- 
ceed ; some of them insist that if we keep up the pace it will be in 
spite of our schools and schooling. What is it, then, that gives us 
such advantage of our old-world neighbors? One answer is as 
follows : 

America's industry is what it is primarily because of the bound- 
less energy, the restless enterprise, and the capacity for strenuous 
work with which her people are endowed ; and because these powers 
are stimulated to action by the marvelous opportunities for wealth 
production which the country offers. These conditions have deter- 
mined the character of all American institutions — the schools in- 
cluded. The schools have not made the people what they are, but 
the people, being what they are, have made the schools. 

Moreover, it is pointed out that our present schools are too 
young to have had any perceptible influence on our industrial 
activity or social life. Our leaders of today were trained under 
the old regime or have come to us from abroad, some with good 
schooling, others with little of any kind. Our workmen, the best 
of them, are self-trained or imported ready-made. The only native 
quality that we apparently have or exercise is, as Professor Arm- 
strong says, " cuteness." And in this respect schooling is of little 
account. He says : 

In point of fact, American cuteness would seem to be conditioned 
by environment rather than by school education. The country 
was settled by adventurous, high-minded men; the adventurous 
and restless spirits of Europe have been attracted there for genera- 



6o 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

tions past; the conditions have always been such as to develop 
enterprise and to stimulate individuality and inventiveness : so that, 
during the whole period in which the continent has been gradually 
acquired and settled on, there has been a constant and invigorating 
struggle going on against nature in one form or another, the Indian 
probably having played no mean part in the education of the race. 
Such being the case, it is important to remember that some at 
least of these influences are now withdrawn and that development 
may, in consequence, be along different lines in future, especially 
as the enervating influence of machinery is also coming into play 
more and more. 

Perhaps we should not expect a foreigner, least of all an English- 
man, to understand us, but I must say that these Englishmen, with 
minor exceptions, size us up pretty accurately. They come to us 
with 20 years experience in developing technical schools for the 
training of efficient workmen, only to find that as yet we are hardly 
aware that workmen need special training. They concede that our 
schools, especially the elementary grades, are admirably adapted 
to the development of individuality, but they contend that for a 
practical people we exhibit some curious inconsistencies. When 
we set ourselves to training military leaders we take boys with 
little more than an elementary school education and after four years 
of technical instruction we put them into the field to command 
men. In our professional and technological schools we jumble to- 
gether the high school boy and the college graduate as though the 
higher education had no bearing on success in everyday life. We 
laud the practical training of Hampton and Tuskegee for their 
success in equipping the southern negro to earn a livelihood under 
adv^erse social conditions. But nowhere do we give the white boy an 
equal chance in the struggle for existence. Every year we send out 
of our schools some millions of boys and girls who must do the 
day's work, but it is apparently no concern of the schools that the 
day's work shall be well done. For the boy who wishes to become 
a preacher, lawyer, doctor, engineer or teacher, or enter any one of 
a hundred vocations reserved for the trained specialist, the public 
maintains palatial establishments equipped with the best that men 
can give or money buy. Teachers we have a plenty, but what of 
those who make up the rank and file? Do we think we can sum- 
mon them at will ? Are they " minutemen " who will respond 
promptly when the call to battle comes? Or do we count on pay- 
ing a generous bounty and then dangle a pension before their 
eyes to keep them loyal ? If there is work to be done and training 
can be given that will interest the worker, make his work more 



1905] EDUCATION FOR THE TRADES AND OTHER INDUSTRIES 6 1 

valuable and increase his efficiency, why do we not have such schools 
supported at public expense? Is the training that the farmer boy 
gets at home for his " board and keep " of so great educational 
value that we can afford to dispense with agricultural schools ? Ask 
the New Englander who is making so hasty a retreat in the face 
of foreign invaders. Are the chances so easy and the teaching so 
good in the building trades that the apprentice has no need of trade 
schools? Consider the rules and regulations of the labor unions 
and learn wisdom therefrom. Why is it that we make ample pro- 
vision for training the head and give so little heed to training 
the hand? 

The distinctive peculiarity of American education from the be- 
ginning almost to the present day is its selective character. Like 
the Scotch schoolmaster, we have rejoiced more over the one " lad 
of pairts " who somehow gets ahead, despite our instruction per- 
haps, than over the ninety and nine who need our help. We boast 
of an educational ladder that reaches from the gutter to the uni- 
versity, and we see nothing amiss in making our elementary schools 
preparatory to the high school, and the high school preparatory 
to the college and university- In other words, that which few need 
all must take. 

No other great nation that I know of thinks it worth while to train 
everybod}^ for everything — and nothing ! — and to do it at public ex- 
pense. Germany has its great system of schools leading to the uni- 
versity and to professional life, and any boy who will may go forward 
as surely if less easily than with us. But Germany has, too, a system 
of public education which connects direct with practical life when 
the boy or girl leaves school at the age of 14. To be sure, it is 
little more than a beginning that can be made in training for practi- 
cal life before the age of 14, but in the past 20 years astonishing 
progress has been made in supplementing the common school train- 
ing and continuing it over a period of two, three or four years 
after the boy has left school and while he is learning a trade. In 
making Germany a dangerous rival of England and the United 
States in the markets of the world the continuation schools are 
doing quite as much by supplying the skilled workman as the 
technical institutes and universities are by sending out engineers 
and scientific experts. If you want a chance to do some hard 
thinking and self-criticizing, send to the Department of Commerce 
and Labor in Washington for volume 33 of the Special Consular 
Reports just issued [1905] and read that able treatise of 5'i4 pages 
on Industrial Education and Industrial Conditions in Germany. If 



62 431^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

that does not provide food for reflection there is something wrong 
with you — or with me. 

My conviction is that instead of being satisfied with our school 
system in New York we should be thoroughly ashamed of it — 
ashamed not of our good schools and the good work that is being 
done, but ashamed that we as a people are being contented with so 
restricted a system of public education and so narrow a curriculum. 
We accept the politician's dictum that we are too poor to spend 
more than we do on education, when the fact is we are too poor 
to spend so little. More, much more than we now spend on educa- 
tion would be money in our pockets if only we knew how to expend 
it aright. 

France, heavily burdened as she is, maintains in addition to her 
great system of elementary, secondary and higher schools (including 
universities, professional schools and schools of science) the follow- 
ing institutions for teaching the industrial arts : 

One national institute of arts and trades, i central school of arts 
and manufactures, 8 high schools of commerce, i advanced school 
of commerce, i commercial institute, 4 national schools of arts and 
trades, i national school for training superintendents and foremen, 
2 national schools of watchmaking, 4 national professional schools,, 
26 commercial and industrial schools for boys, 6 commercial and 
industrial schools for girls. 

In addition to the foregoing the municipal bodies of towns of any 
importance have opened professional schools for the elementary 
teaching of trades, industries or arts (design, weaving, lace-making, 
dressmaking, dyeing, electricity, bookkeeping, and stenography). 
There are also numerous private schools and societies for the im- 
provement of the artisan, which are well attended. 

What France is doing is also being done — and done better in 
some instances — by Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzer- 
land and England. In order not to overemphasize our remissness 
I will cite only one more example of a country which is poor and 
knows it — Wiirtemberg, 

Wiirtemberg is a country of 2,081,000 inhabitants with a revenue 
of nearly $10 a head of the population. Besides elementary and 
secondary schools for all, it supports outright or largely subsidizes : 
one state university, Tiibingen, of honorable history and, in some 
branches of instruction, of world-wide fame ; one technical high 
school (practically a technical university) and one royal building 
trades school, both at Stuttgart; two special technical schools 
(Reutlingen and Schuenningen) for textile and mechanical indus- 
tries respectively ; three weaving schools, two weaving workshops, 
and one knitting school, scattered about the kingdom; 231 indus- 



ig05] EDUCATION FOR THE TRADES AND OTHER INDUSTRIES 63 

trial improvement schools in towns and villages; improvement 
courses wherever they can be justified by the attendance, providing 
special instruction for braziers, joiners, painters, metal workers, 
bootmakers etc.; i8 improvement schools for w^omen in w^hich 
serious instruction is given with a view to preparation for house- 
hold management or independent industrial occupation; one fully 
equipped commercial college at Stuttgart, and two commercial im- 
provement schools at which instruction is given, morning and 
evening, outside of business hours ; one elaborately organized agri- 
cultural high school at Hohenheim, and numerous farming schools 
throughout the country ; one art school, and one art trades school 
for the training of artistically skilled workmen in branches of 
industry connected with art. 

There are two sufficient reasons for our not following Europe's 
lead: (i) we don't want to, and (2) we don't need to. 

We don't need to follow Europe's lead because life in this country 
is still easy. It isn't half settled yet. Some day we shall have 
500,000,000 here. I suppose we have land enough, and land good 
enough if tilled properly, to support a population 10 times as great 
as we now have. But even 50 years from now at our present rate 
of increase we shall begin to appreciate what competition means. 
What will it mean when necessity compels us to use at its best 
every square foot of land we own? Then the man who will not 
work, surely may not eat. And if he would preserve American 
traditions of decency and competence he must work harder and 
more effectively than the man of today has to work. 

It must be obvious to any fair-minded student of our educational 
system, as it was to the Mosely Commission, that we are doing 
next to nothing either to ward off threatened dangers or to prepare 
for those which are bound to come in future. Instead of doing 
the practical thing, we, a so called " practical " people, are content 
to produce " cuteness." The business w^orld expects every man 
to do his duty — but it is very obvious that his first duty is to hustle 
and to get results. I once heard a colored teacher in the South 
illustrate the spirit of the age in this wise : "Once we measured 
time by grandfather's clock, which said ' Ever — forever, never — 
forever ' ; nowadays we use a Waterbury, which says, ' Git thar — git 
thar.' " Our aim is to " git thar " — in our college sports, in pro- 
fessional life, in business, everywhere we count on winning, honestly 
if possible, dishonestly if necessary and if the chances of getting 
found out are not too great. 

Contrary to the findings of most members of the Mosely Com- 
mission, I believe that our schools are partly responsible for con- 
firming us in our besetting sins — not by what they teach but in 



64 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

the prevailing methods of teaching. One of the Commission refers 
to it euphemistically as our way of developing individuality ; another 
notices that our tea,chers do less teaching and more hearing of 
lessons than are common in England. Be that as it may, the fact 
is we do look for results and are not overparticular how these 
results are obtained or whether they are just right or not. We are 
too easily satisfied with a plausible rendering of a foreign text; 
we are prone to measure proficiency by the amount of work done 
or the time spent in doing it, rather than by excellence of accom- 
plishment or accuracy of method. We encourage guessing and the 
prize too often goes to him who shows greatest skill in concealing 
his ignorance. In a word, we are too easily satisfied with appear- 
ances and attach too little weight to the moral effects of doing 
honest work. 

There is another reason, as I have said, why we do not choose 
to follow European methods of education — we don't want to. 

We don't want to because we are not bound by social traditions. 
Our society is a social democracy. Our schools are designed to 
grant equal opportunity to all. In most other countries, England 
included, the school system is deliberately intended to keep some 
down while helping others up. So long as our mode of government 
endures we can not shut the door of opportunity in the face of any 
citizen. It is the greatest experiment the world has ever seen, and 
while there are many who would gladly see it fail, it is our bounden 
duty to make it succeed. It would be presumptuous to say after 
only one century of trial that success is already assured. This is 
only the beginning. We are just coming to realize some of our 
blessings, as we see more clearly for the first time some of our 
dangers. 

How can a nation endure that deliberately seeks to rouse ambi- 
tions and aspirations in the on-coming generations which in the 
nature of events can not possibly be fulfilled? If the chief object 
of government be to promote civil order and social stability, how 
can we jvistify our practice in schooling the masses in precisely 
the same manner as we do those who are to be our leaders? Is 
human nature so constituted that those who fail will readily acquiesce 
in the success of their rivals, especially if that success be the result 
of " cuteness " rather than honest effort ? Is it any wonder that 
we are beset with labor troubles, or that the socialistic vote in the 
recent presidential election should make statesmen fear for the 
consequences? We are indeed optimists if we see no cause for 
alarm in our present social conditions, and we are worse than fools 



1905] EDUCATION FOR THE TRADES AND OTHER INDUSTRIES 65 

if we content ourselves with a superficial treatment of the ills that 
afflict us. Legislation may do much to help us out of trouble, but 
it is only education of the right sort that can permanently keep us 
from ruin. There never has been a time when we were more in 
need of sound education, and in the struggle for existence that is 
yet to come we shall need a better education than we conceive of 
today. 

There is one educational principle that is peculiarly American. 
It is that every man, because he is a man and an American citizen, 
should be liberally educated so far as circumstances will permit. 
A man, according to our Magna Charta, is entitled to life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness. The first business of the schools is 
to make life worth living, liberty worth striving for and the pursuit 
of happiness something for which no man need be ashamed. We 
need, in my opinion, one more article in our educational creed. It 
is this : In making a man, make him good for something. It is a 
practice easily recognizable in the history of our universities and 
professional schools. Time was when the .service of church and 
state alone required special training. But with the advance of 
science, the introduction of machinery and the narrowing of the 
world's horizon, leaders, trained leaders, have been called for in a 
thousand fields. Once the need arises for trained leaders, a pro- 
fessional school springs into being. And in this respect the past 
50 years have outdone the record of all time before. 

The next step is to see that the common man is equally well 
provided for. A beginning has been made in the enrichment of the 
course of study in our elementary and high schools, thus giving 
a choice of studies and better preparation for life if the pupil knows 
how to choose wisely ; in the introduction of the natural sciences, 
manual training and the domestic arts, thus giving some acquaint- 
ance with the industrial processes underlying our civilization if the 
subjects be well taught; and finally in the difl'erentiation of the 
school courses and school work whenever the future vocations of 
our pupils are definitely known, as in the negro schools of the 
South, the county agricultural schools of Wisconsin and the trade 
schools of some of our eastern cities. 

But all this is only a beginning. At best but little can be done 
before the age of 14, but that little can be of the right kind. In 
teaching arithmetic we can as well present problems of everyday 
significance as those which are never met with out of school ; in 
reading we can read about that which it is worth while remember- 
ing; in history we can dwell upon some events which are not 



66 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

political ; in science we can prepare for farming as well as for 
college; in manual training and the domestic arts we can do in 
the small what the race has done in the large in its efforts to pro- 
vide food, clothing and shelter and to perfect means of communica- 
tion and transportation. If nothing else is gained from the 
elementary school than a wholesome respect for man's industry, a 
good basis is afforded for participation in man's occupations. 

The serious preparation for practical life begins for the great 
majority of us at the age of 13 or 14, on leaving the elementary 
school. The most dangerous period in the life of a boy or girl 
lies just ahead — say up to the age of 19 or 20. This is the time 
when the average boy must learn to be self-supporting and when 
the girl must fit herself for domestic duties. It is the time, too, 
when technical training counts for most. I contend that every 
American boy and girl is entitled to practical help in this time of 
greatest need — and at public expense, too, if the State maintains 
high schools, universities and professional schools for those who 
aspire to leadership in professional life. My reasons for this con- 
tention are these: 

1 Anything that will contribute to the greater efficiency of the 
workman is a contribution not only to his own well-being but to 
the wealth of the nation. 

2 Anything that will lead the workman to take more pride in his 
work tends to make him a better citizen and a more conservative 
member of society. 

If it be possible to make each man, no matter what his social 
standing may be, an honest leader in his own field, a workman who 
is not ashamed of his handiwork, then we need fear no criticism 
of our colleagues across the sea, nor need we as an industrial peo- 
ple fear the competition in the world's markets. More than that, 
we need never lose faith in the righteousness of American ideals 
or dread the consequences of our social democracy. If there be 
those who say the task is impossible, I answer in the words of 
General Armstrong when someone doubted the possibility of negro 
education, " What are Christians for but to do the impossible ?" 

To summarize: In our efforts to help the common man, whom 
the Lord loveth, as Abraham Lincoln said, because He makes so 
many of them, there are several things to be done. 

1 Our prevailing method of teaching must be so reformed that 
honesty of effort and of purpose shall triumph over sham and 
" cuteness." 

2 The old subjects of our elementary curriculum should be given 
with modern and concrete applications. This does not imply any 



1905] EDUCATION FOR THE TRADES AND OTHER INDUSTRIES 67 

sacrifice of discipline or culture, or any loss of mental acumen 
or individual initiative. It means stronger work and better results 
because it appeals directly to the child's appreciation of what is of 
most worth. 

3 New subjects, the " fads and frills " if you please, must find 
a place, provided they give an understanding of modern industrial 
processes and a knowledge of industrial development. 

4 It may be that part of the regular course will ultimately be 
given over to trade instruction. I am not so sure of that because 
I fancy that when public sentiment reaches the stage of demanding 
so much, it will quickly ask for more — more general training as 
well as more specific instruction. 

5 We must have, at public expense too, if in no other way, 
trade schools of many kinds, both for the sake of making efficient 
workmen and also particularly for making safe and efficient citizens 
in a republic pledged to all the world to help all men up and to 
keep no man down. 

Dr Joseph King — I have found pleasure in being present at 
these meetings for more than a third of a century and have hurried 
away from the alma mater to take in some of these sessions and 
congratulate myself on having heard part of the paper preceding 
and this last paper in full. I am touched by the sound and con- 
vincing arguments of Professor Russell that we provide better for 
the rank and file. We have much in our schoolhouses and public 
school system that we plume ourselves upon, but we want to remem- 
ber when we look at the result that only a comparatively small num- 
ber avail themselves of the advantages of the high school for more 
than the first year. Very few, comparatively, take the whole course, 
and a much smaller number go to a college or university. So it 
occurs to me that we give too little chance for electives. I hope that 
in the enlargement which you are talking about now something will 
come that will prove of benefit to the rank and file. 



68 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE^29 

Thursday evening, June 29 

EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE 

A NEW COLLEGE DEGREE 

BY HON. FRANK A. VANDERLIP, VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL CITY BANK, 
NEW YORK, FORMER ASS't SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY 

In this gathering of professional educators I presume nothing 
less than the traditional bravery of the foolish would lead a lay- 
man into a discussion of a new phase of higher education. That 
would seem to be particularly true in the face of a recent utterance 
by that revered dean of American learning. President Eliot of 
Harvard, when the subject chosen is commercial education. Presi- 
dent Eliot has recently told us that it is monstrous — the strong 
adjective is his— that it is monstrous that the common schools 
should give much time to compound numbers and bank discount, 
and little time to drawing. In the face of that vigorous declaration 
against utilitarianism, the layman must be foolhardy indeed who 
would raise his voice in advocacy of an education especially adapted 
to men who are to lead commercial lives. 

President Eliot has told us further that the main object in every 
school should be — not to provide students with means of earning 
a livelihood — but to show them how to live happy and worthy 
lives inspired by ideals which exalt both labor and pleasure. That 
desirable object he seems to believe can be best obtained by teach- 
ing children how lines, straight and curved, lights and shades, form 
pictures ; rather than by leading their young minds into the waste 
places of compound numbers and bank discount. 

On any subject connected with education there is no opinion 
that should be more revered than that of the president of Harvard. 
His position is unique ; his words are the voice of authority. This 
slighting opinion of bank discount and compound numbers which 
Dr Eliot has expressed can, I presume, hardly be taken as repre- 
senting his unqualified view regarding practical education. Through 
all time there have been many distinguished utterances by philoso- 
phers and teachers as to the meaning of education. These men, 
however, have rarely agreed in their concepts of the purpose and 
the aim of education. Since the days of the Greek philosophers 
there has been little progress toward a generally accepted view of 
what education should aim to accomplish. When the doctors of 
learning themselves disagree perhaps a layman may be forgiven 
for differing from them on some points. 



1905] EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE 69 

It is certain that the colleg-e curricuhim has undergone many 
changes and much development even within the period of years 
during which most of you have been actively connected with educa- 
tional matters. We have seen great changes, marked broadening 
and much significant development in the studies generally pre- 
scribed as requisite for a college course. Those changes have been 
sufficiently marked to indicate that there is still, in the minds of 
those who are directing education, indefiniteness as to what is 
absolutely best in the way of instruction. The changes which have 
been going on have been sufficiently rapid and recent to lead one 
to believe that there may still be important changes, still material 
broadening, in the courses which our colleges offer. It is logical, 
therefore, to believe that our system of higher education has not 
settled into anything like permanent form. The alterations which 
we have seen indicate that there are more to come. Curriculums 
which are today regarded with the highest veneration, may in some 
tomorrow, be found lacking and in need of modification. It is 
in the belief that the college curriculum is still in a period of transi- 
tion and enlargement that I venture to give my views of one phase 
of higher education in which I think we are soon to see distinct 
developments. 

The experience which I have had in business, and particularly 
the experience which I have had with young college men in busi- 
ness affairs, leads me to the firm belief that much may properly 
be asked in the way of a broadened university curriculum. Much 
could be added that will be of great advantage to the individuals 
who are to be future leaders in business life. But the added courses 
would be of value, not alone to those individuals, but in the future 
development of commerce along right lines and thus of importance 
in working towards the general well being of the commonwealth. 

I believe in the educated man in business. I believe the present 
college course is not the best that can be devised for the training 
of men who are to be leaders in commercial and financial life. It 
is true that we have scientifically classified a few of the principles 
and underlying laws of commerce and finance, and we teach them 
more or less well. I believe man}^ more of those laws and principles, 
can be scientifically classified, and can be taught, and that the 
result of such teaching will make better business men, will qualify 
men for great responsibility earlier in life, will help solve the 
problems that new commercial conditions have raised, and will 
work to our national advantage, not only in the way of our pre- 
eminence in commerce, but also in the direction of a clearer under- 



70 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

standing of the true relation between -government and business 
and therefore toward a better discharge of our duties as citizens. 

There should be no failure on the part of our educators to appre- 
ciate the increasing demands that are, by the changing character 
of commercial affairs, being laid upon the abilities of business men. 
The last two decades have witnessed changes that make necessary 
an entirely new order of ability in business life. Those changes 
demand a greatly superior training. We have seen the capital 
employed in business enterprises jump from millions to billions. 
That change is significant of something much more than mere 
growth in the magnitude of commercial operations. It is significant 
of fundamental alteration, in conditions and methods. We have 
seen struggling lines of railways united into systems and systems 
into vast nets, all operated under a single management. We have 
seen whole industries concentrated into a few combinations, and 
those combinations dominating their especial markets throughout 
the world. These new conditions have- surrounded us with prob- 
lems for the solution of which experience furnishes neither rule nor 
precedent. To solve them we need a grounding in principles, an 
understanding of broad underlying laws. 

The world is in great measure becoming a commercial unit. 
The eye of every business man must be farseeing enough to ob- 
serve all markets and survey all zones. A significant word spoken 
in any marketplace or parliament of the world, instantly reaches 
the modern business man, and he should be prepared to correctly 
interpret its meaning. 

Electricity has annihilated the geographies, for it has destroyed 
the distinctions which gave geographic boundaries their significance. 
Political distinctions will continue to live, languages and religions 
will continue to differ, but the peoples of the earth, regardless of 
political boundaries, of racial differences, of national ambitions, 
are coming rapidly to form one great commercial unit, one great 
economic organism. There are no tariff walls against capital. 
The language talked by money is a universal tongue. The modern 
business leader, therefore, more than was ever the case before, 
needs a mind educated to think clearly, needs the ability to accu- 
rately trace effect to cause, and needs the training that will enable 
him to understand the true relation between far separated conditions 
and widely diverse influences. 

With the limitless wealth of resources which we have had in 
America, the successful conduct of a business enterprise has been 
a comparatively easy matter. Nothing short of egregious error 



1905] EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE 7I 

has been likely to lead to failure- Any ordinary mistake in judging 
conditions or in the application of principles has, as a rule, been 
obliterated by the rapidity of the country's growth and the extent 
of its industrial and commercial development. If some of the men 
who have made notable commercial successes had been forced to face 
the harder conditions that exist in the old world, the measure of 
their success might have been a very different one. Had they 
been confronted by a situation where population was pressing upon 
the means of subsistence, where all the soil was under cultivation, 
where the mineral resources were meager and where there was 
lacking the wealth of the virgin forests, they would have needed 
greater abilities and better trained faculties in order to achieve 
such marked success. We are easily inclined to believe that we 
have the best business men in the world. I am disposed to agree 
with that view. But one should not lose sight of the fact that the 
lavishness of opportunity has brought commercial success to many 
who have come into the field poorly prepared and with small ability. 
Any one who is familiar with the commercial life of Germany and 
has seen the successes there built up out of a poverty of resources 
— successes perhaps not comparing brilliantly with some of our 
own, until one studies the difficulties that had to be surmounted 
in achieving them — must perceive there some elements of business 
ability superior to our own. There has been an astonishing increase 
of wealth and an enormous expansion in commerce in that nation. 
No one searching for the fundamental reasons why German com- 
mercial progress is relatively so much greater than that of other 
European nations, will fail to reach the conclusion that one of the 
greatest factors in that country's development has been the prompt 
and intelligent use which has been made of the schools. The 
Germans have to the highest degree made practical application of 
their learning. They have brought the true scientific spirit to bear 
upon their everyday problems. Industry and commerce have both 
profited in the largest degree. Today we find in that nation, in 
spite of its lack of natural resources, preeminence in many industrial 
fields, a striking preeminence in foreign commerce, and a superior 
intelligence in the administration of finance. Those successes can 
all be, in the greatest measure, traced back to the schoolmaster. 

A certain unequaled native ability, coupled with unparalleled 
natural resources have united to ihelp American business men 
achieve a measure of material success that has been in many cases, 
I believe, quite out of proportion to the ability brought to the work. 
In American business life the coming years can hardly be expected 



■>„•/ 



72 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

to offer so many easy roads toward business success as have ap- 
peared to the commercial wayfarer at every turn in years past. 
Our resources of course are far from reaching the complete develop- 
ment common in the old world countries- We have nevertheless 
advanced to a point of development where there will be less chance 
for success to come as a reward for haphazard and misdirected 
work. The successes of the future will be for better trained men. 
That is true not alone because we have in a measure already ex- 
ploited our great resources, but because the field of commercial 
activity has so vastly broadened, because there has been such an 
enormous gain in the magnitude of commercial operations, and 
because of the increasingly intricate relationships which have re- 
sulted from this broadening and this growth. The changed scope, 
character and methods of modern business have united to demand 
men with a training superior to anything that was ever needed 
before, as the successful commercial leaders of the future. That 
general training can not be had in the highly specialized process 
of the routine work of the office. The practical school of experience 
is too wasteful as a teacher of general principles. There will, of 
course, be the exceptional man who will come up through that 
routine training and dominate his field by the force of his intellect, 
but in the main the new conditions of affairs demand a superior 
training such as only the schools can give. 

I know the majority of business men trained in the school of 
routine work will doubt the feasibility of teaching in the classroom, 
in a scientific and orderly fashion, those principles which they have 
gained only through years of hard experience and which they even 
yet recognize more by a sort of intuition than by conscious analysis. 
The engineers of an earlier day thought that blue overalls and not 
a doctor's gown formed the proper dress for the neophyte in engi- 
neering, but we have come long ago to recognize that the road 
to success as an engineer is through a technical school. So, too, 
I believe, we will in time come to recognize, though perhaps not to 
so full an extent, that the road to commercial leadership will be 
through the doors of those colleges and universities which have 
developed courses especially adapted to the requirements of com- 
mercial life. 

When I speak of a higher commercial education I am referring 
to an ideal education for commercial and financial leaders. An 
ordinary machinist does not require to be graduated a mechanical 
engineer. A riveter of bridge bolts has no need to have taken 
honors in a course of civil engineering. A bookkeeper, a 



1905] educationJfor^commerce 73 

stenographer or a bank clerk does not require such a commercial 
education as I am sug-gesting. For all those positions there should 
be special instruction, fitted to the character of the duties. My 
thought at the moment, however, is directed particularly towards 
the ideal form of university education for leaders in financial and 
commercial life. 

In advocating a so called higher commercial education, I would 
not be regarded as desiring a college course highly specialized and 
devoted to technical subjects at the expense of a broad cultural 
training- I would not be understood as advocating changes that 
will work towards a narrower college education, but rather changes 
that will work toward a broader one. I am not going to outline 
specifically what I think the curricu.lum should be for an ideal 
higher commercial education. At the present time such a definite 
outline is impossible. It is impossible because textbooks must be 
written and teachers must be taught before that ideal course can 
be given. An ideal course such as I have in mind must at best be 
the development of years. There will be necessary action and 
reaction between university life and business life. Men must be 
better trained in the university for their business careers, and then 
out of that business life, and from among those better trained men, 
must in turn come men who will bring to the universities that 
combination of theory and practice, that knowledge of principles 
combined with familiarity with practical detail, which in the end 
will make both ideal teachers and ideal business men. 

There is little or nothing that has been proven good that will 
need to be cut from the present college course. I believe the addi- 
tional work and training that will be necessary in an ideal com- 
mercial education can easily be made possible within the present 
term of university residence by more effective and economical use 
of time. It will not be necessary to discard present requirements 
that have been found to be useful and have been proven productive 
of good results. It will only be necessary to apply to both the years 
of preparatory work, and to the years of the college course, the 
business man's keen antipathy to waste. The time can then be 
saved that will be needed for the mastery of those special lines of 
study that will differentiate this ideal commercial course from the 
work which is at present demanded for a college degree. 

I believe it is too nearly the truth that a college degree in America 
today does not mean a great deal more than four years of resi- 
dence at a college. It certainly does not mean that there have 
been four honest full years of hard and conscientious work as an 



74 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

absolute requisite for that degree. There is undoubtedly oppor- 
tunity for a man to put in the fullest measure of industry, but there 
are few institutions where that full measure is absolutely required 
before they will give the stamp of their approval in the form of a 
degree. The schools that are most tenacious of classical tradition 
should hardly feel proud of the fact that practically the only insti- 
tutions of learning in the country that absolutely demand a full 
and honest return of work done in exchange for the honor of their 
degrees, are the technical schools. If as sharp a demand for time 
well spent were made in all colleges, a long step would be taken 
toward gaining sufficient room in the curriculum for the studies 
that will be necessary to make up an ideal commercial course- 

I am perfectly aware that among the various conceptions of the 
true aim of education, there are many which agree with that of 
Dr Eliot that a school is not for the purpose of providing the 
student with a means of earning a livelihood. I sympathize with 
those conceptions which hold that the purpose of education is to 
create noble ideals, to encourage the growth of the taproots of 
sound character and to cultivate the blossoms of culture, but do 
not believe that my ideal of a commercial education is necessarily 
at variance with these ideals. In advocating it I do not think it is. 
necessary to adopt the view of the utilitarians, who believe that 
education should be merely a course of technical training, fitting 
the student for some practical work. I would not make the mistake 
of planning a course of study which would merely be an anticipation 
of the duties of the countingroom. I know there are. some who 
measure the value of the work of a college by its success in being 
of practical and important advantage to those who are preparing 
for professional life. They believe that the school which will, in 
the briefest time, turn a man into an able lawyer, a competent 
engineer, or a skilful physician, should be regarded as the most 
successful. People holding that very practical conception of the 
purpose of education should at least be glad to welcome a new 
field in which university training may be applied with practical 
results, but I do not believe it necessary to hold such narrow 
views in order to agree that higher education may be so shaped 
as to be of especial advantage to young men looking forward to 
business careers. 

There are some who regard the university as primarily a center 
for the diffusion of learning. That conception is imperfect, but 
I should think that those who hold it would recognize a field of 
the very greatest importance in the work which might be done in 



1905] EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE 75 

the way of disseminating correct views in regard to financial and 
commercial subjects. If we had in our universities professors 
capable of a thoroughly scientific understanding of the principles 
underlying many of the problems of finance and commerce, these 
men would help us to see distinctly and to think clearly in regard 
to some of our everyday practices and tendencies. The dissemina- 
tion of such knowledge would surely be of great value. 

There are some whose conception of a university is that its 
greatest work should be in the field of scientific research. They 
have a noble ideal. They believe that the development of new 
knowledge is a work even superior to that of its diffusion. They 
aim to inculcate a spirit which will lead men to seek truth for its 
own sake, and to create an enthusiasm for scientific exactness. 
That idea is not at all out of harmony with the possibilities of a 
higher commercial education. 

In the popular mind the motives of business men are often 
maligned. I know leaders in the business world who have as 
little concern for personal reward in what they seek to accomplish 
as would be the rule with men engaged in scientific research. These 
men are devoted to certain commercial ideals. The making of 
money happens to be inseparably connected with those ideals, but 
the making of money is not the great motive force. They are 
interested in the expansion and development of business, in the 
discovery of new fields of operation and in the introduction of 
improved methods. Their interest in that work is no more ignoble 
than is the interest of any other specialist. Men who already have 
more than most ample means, are not for personal gain pursuing 
business with an absorbing intensity. It is with them empire build- 
ing, perhaps on a small scale or perhaps on a great one. Their 
lives are not sordid. They may be narrow, as the lives of all 
specialists are narrow, but the popular idea in regard to men whose 
lives are given to commerce, the view that these men are devoting 
their existence to mere money getting, is in great measure erron- 
eous. They have the same high type of imagination which usually 
marks men who attain eminence in any other line of activity. They 
are, in a large way or in a small way, as may be determined by 
their environments, using similar qualities to those that make great 
statesmen, great scholars, or great scientists. I believe, therefore, 
that a proper education for the highest work in commercial life 
might be so outlined as to be entirely in harmony in its practical 
application with the ideals of those who conceive that a university 
should be a place for scientific research, a place where the scientific 



76 43^^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

habit of mind should be created, and where truth should be sought 
purely for the love of. the truth. 

A higher conception than all those others perhaps is a definition 
which Dr Pladley gives us. In his view the most profoundly im- 
portant work which falls to the lot of the American citizen, is his 
duty in guiding the destinies of the country. He believes that if 
we train the members of the rising generation to do this well, all 
other things can be trusted to take care of themselves; but if we 
do not train them to do this well, no amount of education in other 
lines will make up for the deficiency. Suppose then we accept that 
as the final test of a university training. How can the duties of 
citizenship best be taught? What are the requisites for a training 
in citizenship? I would answer, training in the highest conceptions 
of business. Of what does the work of guiding the destinies of the 
country consist? Consider what are the political problems of the 
day and of the generation- A great part, nearly the whole of the 
work of government in a country like ours, is merely the conduct of 
business on a very large scale. Look over the political platforms 
of the last generation or study the messages of the presidents, and 
you will find a very large percentage of the political questions that 
have been raised, are in their ultimate definition, merely commercial 
questions. What have they been? The money standard; the con- 
trol of trusts ; the regulation of interstate commerce ; railroad 
rebates ; questions affecting the currency and banking ; customs 
duties ; schemes of taxation ; the building of canals and the creation 
of plans for irrigation. These and questions like them have made 
up almost altogether the political questions of the day. They are 
in the end merely business questions. No purely ethical principle is 
at stake. We have now no necessity for a discussion of the rights 
of man. Our government in the main is a great business enterprise 
and our political problems in the main are economic problems. 

In respect to such questions, what sort of training is wanted? 
Can any one answer them so well as a thoroughly trained business 
man, granting first that he is governed by the highest ideals of 
patriotism and honesty? Will not the man who is thoroughly well 
grounded in the principles of commerce and finance, be better quali- 
fied to guide the destinies of our country, than one who has merely 
had a training in the love for the beautiful or one who has won 
class prize in Greek declamation? If we adopt President Hadley's 
view as to the most profoundly important work of the university, 
I believe that noble ideal is most distinctly in harmony with the 
conception I have of what is possible in the way of a higher com- 
mercial education. 



1905] EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE 77 

In this connection Dr Hadley has made one of the most striking 
statements that has come from any modern educator. He has told us 
that every change in industry and political methods makes it clearer 
that mere intelligence is not sufficient to secure wise administration 
of the affairs of the country, but in addition there must also be 
developed a sense of trusteeship. There is nothing so much needed 
in American life today, in my opinion, as a cultivation of a sense 
of trusteeship. That need is by no means confined to political life but 
is the need surpassing all others in commercial life. If the schools 
can teach it, and in a measure I believe they can, they will do more 
for commerce than they have done for engineering, or law, or science. 
If I were to name one thing preeminently to be desired as a result 
of a course of higher commercial education, it would be the cultiva- 
tion of a proper sense of trusteeship- I do not regard that as an 
impossible ideal. A truer understanding of the real relation and 
relative importance of the principles of commerce would give men 
a far clearer view and a more just appreciation of the responsibilities 
of trusteeship. We have men holding positions of great trust in our 
commercial life today who have a childish ignorance in regard to 
their responsibilities as trustees. These men are honest men, they 
are well meaning men, but they have never learned the elemental 
principles upon which a sense of trusteeship must be built. I am 
not so optimistic as to believe that a college course could be so 
designed that those having its benefits would afterward in active 
life always be embued with the highest sense of trusteeship, but 
I do believe that Dr Hadley uttered a great truth when he pointed 
out that the cultivation of such a sense is the most important work 
that a college has to do. If it is important in the education of the 
American citizen, it is doubly important in the education of that 
class of American citizens, who have to deal with the commercial 
and financial life of the country. 

We are having an illustration today of how a clearer under- 
standing of underlying principles of commerce illuminates ethical 
considerations. A generation ago, before we had thought very 
deeply or accurately in regard to the nature of common carriers, 
there were many men who saw nothing ethically wrong in a rail- 
road rebate. Men regarded a railroad as a piece of private property 
and railroad transportation as a commodity which might with 
perfect propriety be bargained for and sold to the best advantage. 
The whole community has since been educated to a clearer com- 
prehension of the fundamental principles of transportation, with 
the result that we have built up ethical standards which abso- 



78 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

lutely did not exist before. This I believe is an illustration of 
what might happen in many other directions with a better educa- 
tion embracing principles and underlying laws. 

I want to quote again from the president of Yale. Dr Hadley 
says : 

An intelligent study of science whether it be physics or biology, 
psychology or history, should train a man in that respect for law 
which is the best antidote to capricious self-will on the part of 
the individual. The student learns that he is in the midst of 
an ordered world. If he has the root of the matter in him, he 
thereby gains increasing respect for that order and readiness to 
become himself a part of it. 

That statement we must all recognize as eminently true. Is it 
not equally true of the study of the science of commerce? Will 
not such a study train men in that respect for law which is the 
best antidote to capricious self-will on the part of the individual? 
Is it not that of which the country is today standing in the greatest 
need? What do we need more than an antidote to capricious 
self-will on the part of the accidental millionaire? Does not a 
lack of knowledge of fundamental principles lead to a lack of 
respect for the great fundamental laws of finance? I believe that 
is true. I believe when we have reached the point of really making 
a scientific classification of the principles of finance and com- 
merce, a classification which without question can be made, and 
when we have developed a class of teachers capable of giving 
adequate instruction and so made possible a course of study truly 
worthy of serving as the basis for a new college dfegree, we will 
then have taken a long step in the direction of creating that respect 
for law of which we are now in need. There will be a respect 
for economic laws because we will better understand their sig- 
nificance and force. There will be a greater respect for legislative 
laws because, with wiser legislators, those laws will more surely 
be based on correct economic principles. If all this is true, then 
whatever your ideal of education may be, can not you all unite 
in helping to evolve a college course which will be worthy of 
upholding a degree of master of commerce. 



1905] EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE 79 

EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE IN^THE FAR EAST 

BY JEKEMIx\H W. JENKS, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY AND 
POLITICS, CORNELL UNIVERSITY 

The discussion of education for business has been so ably car- 
ried on along general lines either by men immediately engaged in 
directing such education in schools and colleges or by those doing 
business that in speaking of the subject in its rather limited ap- 
plication to the commercal problems of the Far East, it has seemed 
best for me to take J:he position of an economist who has had 
some interest in the study of Far Eastern conditions, and from 
that viewpoint to comment upon some principles of business, well 
known to be sure, but often overlooked in current discussion. We 
should note the conditions to be met before deciding the educa- 
tional problem. It must be kept in mind that the work of the 
economist is simply to hunt out and to state the principles of actual 
business. There is no economic science that is not based upon 
actual business, and there can be no sound business education 
that does not rest upon study of business conditions. 

The nature of commerce 

The subject of commerce includes retail and wholesale trade 
on the one hand, and local, national and foreign trade on the other. 
Each one of these divisions has its own problems and its own 
methods, and to a considerable extent the training for each must 
be special. Naturally some fundamental principles, those of 
accounting, for example, are similar in all. It is necessary in 
every case that the business be so analyzed and understood that 
the reckoning of costs and the determination of profits and losses 
can be made clear; and in many other ways the lines of business 
will be found similar, whatever their scope. On the other hand, 
the methods of purchase and sale of the retailer of necessity differ 
decidedly from those of the wholesaler. His methods of adver- 
tising, his systems of credit, his percentages of profit, his knowledge 
of markets, his whole range of information and activity must 
be vastly different. Likewise the person who buys and sells locally, 
whose transportation of goods is limited by the delivery wagon, 
has problems quite different from those of the man whose busi- 
ness is largely a mail order or express business if he is a retailer, 
or whose range of sales is national if he is a wholesaler. Still a 
new and entirely different set of problems come up for the mer- 
chant whose business is international in its scope. Not merely 



8o 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

has he many of the same problems that have perplexed the other 
merchants mentioned, but in addition come the problems of tariffs 
in the countries of purchase and sale, the questions of inter- 
national exchange of moneys affected both by the character and 
quality of the mone5^s themselves and by the relative demand of 
each country for the goods of foreign countries as compared with 
the supply of its own goods which it ships abroad. In many 
instances, also, aside from the more narrowly business questions, 
there enter into commercial transactions on a large scale ques- 
tions of politics which can not be ignored if one's business is to be 
successful ; and again the question of national politics in the one 
instance may easily broaden into one of international politics in 
the other. The merchant in Chicago may find his business con- 
siderably hampered by the teamsters' strike and may find that this 
question is complicated by relations which may arise with the city 
government, the state government or even the federal govern- 
ment ; but if his dealings are with the Far East, let us say, he 
may find that a shipment of machinery has been diverted from 
Tientsin to Vladivostok, as in one case of which I knew, because 
it happened to be carried on a ship that carried also contraband 
of war. 

In the other discussions, many of the more fundamental prin- 
ciples of commerce and the education which is requisite in order 
to enable our young men to cope with the problems which may 
arise in their business, have been or will be adequately considered. 
I may assume, therefore, that these general principles are accepted 
and carried into effect, and I have to answer simply further ques- 
tions as to the peculiarities of commerce in the Far East which 
will require certain special training to be added to the general 
training already outlined and discussed. Among the problems 
comes first : 

The problem of the balance of trade 

In most of the late discussions on the trade of the United 
States with the Orient, there has been emphatic insistence upon 
the necessity of our " extending our markets into the Orient," of 
our finding a field in which we may " dispose of the surplus of our 
manufactures." We have been repeatedly assured that if we are 
to become a great world power, it is necessary that we reach out 
and capture these oriental markets for our goods as far as possible 
in advance of our rivals. So far as my own observation in con- 
nection with these discussions goes, relatively very little has been 



1905] EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE 81 

said about the possibility of our finding in the Orient opportunities 
for purchases which may satisfy our own needs ; and I have even 
found persons who have been speaking and writing upon these 
questions somewhat embarrassed when they were asked what they 
proposed to accept in return for the goods which they wished 
to sell in the Orient. It seems to have been thoughtlessly as-, 
sumed either that we might be willing to sell to the Orient 
without securing a fair equivalent in return, or, what is much 
more likely, that the oriental country to which we might sell 
would have an unlimited supply of cash with which to pay for 
our goods. If, however, we are continually to expand our sales, 
there must be a corresponding expansion of the power of pro- 
duction in the Orient of those goods which the West may be 
willing to take in exchange. To take China for an illustration. 
For many years in the past China has paid for a large proportion 
of the goods which she has imported from foreign countries by 
the export of silk and tea. It is a fair question whether foreign 
countries, if they double or triple their sales to China, are going 
to be willing to take twice or three times as much silk and tea 
in exchange at prices which will be substantially the same as those 
at present; or whether they will take more products of other 
kinds from China. If China has now no acceptable means of 
payment, will foreigners be willing to take an active part by invest- 
ing capital to develop certain new industries there which will en- 
able that country to supply foreign needs more readily in order 
to meet her increasing demands for foreign goods? We too 
often forget the fundamental principle that in the long run a 
country must pay for what she buys, and that speaking generally, 
she must pay for the goods which she purchases by goods which 
she sells. Of course in certain instances, if a country is a creditor 
country, as is England, she may purchase goods with the interest 
due on her bonds or stocks of the debtor country; or if she has a 
great merchant marine, she may pay by the freights which foreign 
countries owe her citizens for transportation ; or if, as in the case 
of China, many of her citizens go abroad to labor, she may pay 
for the goods which she buys in part by the labor of her citizens 
working in the foreign country. But, in whatever way we ex- 
plain the matter as regards details, it is still clear that the citizens 
of a country, by their labor or by their capital, must in some way 
pay for the goods which that country buys. They can not increase 
their purchases unless they also increase their sales. 



82 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

An apparent exception to this general principle should, however, 
be made in the discussion of the extension of our commerce with 
the Far East. At the present time, China is much in need of 
railways, of iron bridges, of foreign machinery of various kinds. 
If our citizens have capital to invest in China and put that capital 
into the form of railway material or manufacturing establishments, 
it is probable that these American owners of the capital thus 
invested may be willing to let their capital stay in China and 
to draw on that capital for use at home only the dividends on 
their investments. Indeed, in special cases investors might well 
be willing practically to transfer their capital to China and to 
reinvest their profits there, making that for the time being the 
home of their capital, if not their own personal home. To that 
extent there might be a selling of certain classes of goods to China 
for which for an indefinite period, there would be no return de- 
manded in the form of exported goods. The pay might be taken 
only in a claim to wealth. This would constitute probably the 
only exception to the general principle laid down above. There 
is so much popular misconception on this subject that it is proper to 
emphasize here in connection with the subject of commercial 
education this fundamental principle of foreign exchange which 
would not be thought of in connection with local retail trade or 
national exchange. 

Our Far Eastern markets 

In the extension of our commerce in the Far East we need to 
distinguish rather sharply the different markets open to us, for the 
conditions of trade in these markets differ greatly, and the nature 
of the information needed and the methods to be employed differ 
accordingly- It is probable that for some years to come our chief 
markets will be: (i) the Philippine Islands; (2) China, including 
Manchuria; (3) Japan, including Corea; (4) other minor countries, 
such as Hongkong, the Straits Settlements, the Dutch East In- 
dies, etc. 

The Philippine Islands. While the Philippine Islands are in 
one sense part of our national territory, in another sense they are 
to be considered in much the same way as foreign territory, 
because from their location many of their problems, such as th^ 
question of exchange in the payment for goods and the cost of 
transportation, are similar to those in connection with other countries 
of the Far East. On the other hand, as regards the political 
influences which have a bearing upon their commercial condition, 
the problem is mainly domestic. 



1905] EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE 83 

The government there is of necessity friendly to the govern- 
ment of the United States. (It is proper, I think, under the 
circumstances, to speak of "necessary friendliness"). The gov- 
ernment of the United States is disposed, also, to favor the 
industries of the Philippine Islands at the expense, if need be, 
of other foreign countries, if not of the United States them- 
selves. The Philippines are in consequence in many respects 
a better field for investment of American capital than are the 
other countries under consideration. It is probable also that the pro- 
ducts of the Philippines are better adapted at the present time for 
American investments than are those of most other countries, 
and investments are the forerunners of commerce. For example, 
nowhere else in the world is Manila hemp (the chief commercial 
product of the Philippine Islands for export purposes) produced 
to any noticeable extent ; and as yet, in spite of the partial com- 
petition of sisal and other fibers, there has been found no real 
substitute for it. Under the Spanish regime, and so far under 
the American regime, the methods of cultivation, of transportation, 
of purchase and sale, and of local manufacture of the hemp are 
of a very primitive nature. There can be no doubt that here 
is a very miportant field for the development of American com- 
merce through a preliminary investment of American capital. This 
will, in the first instance, make a demand for American machinery 
and steel in the Philippine Islands, and then later, as the hemp 
industry develops in importance and in value, this increased wealth 
will lead to an increased demand for other American products. 

The same statement may be made with somewhat less emphasis 
regarding the tobacco and sugar industries. The tobacco industry 
has already been developed to a considerable extent by Spanish 
and Filipino capital, although there still remains an opportunity 
for further growth. The sugar industry, however, remains still 
in a decidedly primitive condition and apparently needs for its 
large expansion only a somewhat more liberal policy on the part 
of the American Congress. Such added wealth would call for 
many more American products to pay for the exported tobaccos 
and sugars. With proper methods of agriculture, of transporta- 
tion, and especially of manufacture in the sugar industry, there 
can be no doubt that it would develop greatly. Moreover, there 
is every reason to believe that when the capital was once invested, 
the increased product would be sold largely, not on the American 
market, as our timid advisers of Congress seem to fear, but rather 
on the markets of China and other countries of the East. The 



84 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

added purchasing power of the Philippines would still make a 
demand for American goods, even though the product itself were 
not sent directly to the United States. 

Still further investments in the building of railroads, of elec- 
tric roads, of local steamship lines, of sawmills, and other industries 
of the Philippines, would carry out this same principle of increas- 
ing the trade of our home country as well as that of the Philippines 
themselves through the development of their wealth by American 
investments. They will not buy much more than they do now 
until they can sell more. 

China. The situation in China is much the same as in the 
Philippines, with two or three important lines of difference. In the 
first place, the money of China is without any fixed standard, 
consisting practically only of silver bullion to be Aveighed out. 
Each large dealer — even each traveler of means has his own scales 
to weigh out his money. This makes the risk of business, on 
account of the impossibility of knowing the value of the money 
with which one is making his purchases or in which one may 
be paid for his products, so much like gambling risks, that trade 
must of necessity be hampered until the Chinese government can 
be persuaded to adopt some standard uniform system. Again, 
owing to a considerable degree to the ill treatment which the 
Chinese have received from some foreign countries through the 
seizure of territory and the mistreatment of individual Chinese, as 
well as to the very unfriendly attitude of some of the people of the 
United States in connection with Chinese immigration, the Chinese 
themselves are disposed to be suspicious, and, as we have seen 
of late, even decidedly unfriendly toward American trade. This 
suggests another point in connection with the extension of foreign 
commerce upon which too great emphasis can not be placed in 
our commercial schools. In order to extend business in any country, 
the dealings with that country both of the government and of 
private merchants, must be first honest, and second courteous. 

For the present it is hard to tell whether the conditions in Man- 
churia are to be assimilated to those in China or to those in 
Japan. It is quite possible that the latter will be the case; but 
in any event the conditions must be studied carefully with reference 
to the needs and tastes and prejudices of the people of Manchuria 
rather than to our own customs. 

Japan. The conditions in Japan need to be differentiated quite 
sharply from those in China. In the first place, their monetary 
system is satisfactory so that the risk of exchange is removed. 



1905] EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE 85 

Second, the Japanese, while disposed to be friendly, are neverthe- 
less, as a nation, looking much more carefully after their own 
special internal interests than are the Chinese, so that it is per- 
haps even more difficult to find there a field for profitable invest- 
ment. As is well known, the feeling among foreign investors in 
Japan in many instances is that they have not always been treated 
with fairness by the Japanese government, and furthermore that the 
Japanese tradesmen are not always trustworthy in their dealings. 
The Japanese are making earnest efforts to develop their own 
manufactures along many lines, so that their market needs to be 
more particularly studied with reference to the nature of the goods 
which Americans can sell there as well as with reference to the 
products of Japan which can profitably be purchased by Americans. 
The other countries. No different condition in the other coun- 
tries needs especially to be touched upon here. Hongkong, a 
British possession, serves of course chiefly as a door for trade in 
China, while the other countries have each its own special needs 
to be studied. 

Adaption of goods to markets 

This hasty indication of what may be found in the Philippines 
and in some of the other countries serves as a basis for touching 
briefly upon some of the principles that need to be taught in con- 
nection with our commercial colleges. First, it can not be empha- 
sized too often that in selling goods it is necessary to consider 
the likes and dislikes of the purchasers rather than our own. Our 
consuls are continually dwelling upon the fact that American manu- 
facturers and merchants are too strongly inclined to insist upon 
keeping their own standards and imposing those standards upon 
the Chinese, Japanese and other foreigners. We have not yet felt 
the necessity of developing our foreign trade (in spite of all that 
we say about it in the newspapers), to anything like the extent to 
which it has been felt in Europe, and in consequence we have not 
learned this lesson. Illustrations from two of our consular reports 
of last week will explain : 

I Chinese shoes are quite dift'erent in type and style from Ameri- 
can shoes ; in consequence, our American rubber overshoes and 
boots are sold hardly at all in China, whereas Germany is supply- 
ing many. The Germans make a special, short half-boot of light 
weight which does meet Chinese requirements, and the Chinese 
are using them in large numbers ; whereas the American rubbers 
can be worn, and are worn only by the few Chinese who have 
adopted the foreign style of dress, or by those who wear them as 
shoes and not as overshoes. 



86 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 29 

2 Ginseng is another American product which for many de- 
cades has been vakied in China. As is well known, many Chinese 
believe that the ginseng root possesses certain mysterious qualities 
which make it play an important part in their lives, and which 
render it in many particulars " the greatest medicine of earth." 
They believe that these unusual qualities are most frequently found 
in roots which are knotted or gnarled or which have a peculiar 
color, or an abnormal shape, particularly if the root resembles some 
fabulous animal. These facts are well known to the native dealers, 
but not in many cases to the American producers. The conse- 
quence is that the American product, which is cultivated, often 
takes on a form smooth and normal, and in consequence relatively 
of slight value, whereas a little care in cultivation would render 
a root gnarled and ugly and consequently many times more valu- 
able. This is not suggesting an adulteration of the product; it 
suggests meeting your customers wants. In many instances the 
only value that the root possesses is that it satisfies the superstitious 
desires of the Chinese — not their physical needs. The Chinese 
dealers in many cases, owing to our lack of knowledge and our 
neglect to classify the products sent, reap a profit which might 
equally well be secured by the American producer, provided the 
local conditions were known; and in addition the American would 
greatly increase his sales. 

The Germans and the Japanese have far outstripped us in their 
readiness to meet Chinese needs. Hundreds of miles in the 
interior of China are found clocks, cheap ornaments and toilet 
articles of various kinds made in Germany or Japan, often after 
an American model, but poorer and cheaper than the American 
product, and in consequence more acceptable to the Chinese. If 
our merchants had learned the principle that they must study the 
needs of their customers as thoroughly as have the Germans and 
the Japanese, we should in many cases be supplying the needs now 
supplied by them. 

We moreover have not learned to pack our goods well for so 
long and difficult a shipment. In consequence our goods fre- 
quently arrive in the Far East so damaged that they are scarcely 
salable. 

Again, the English particularly, but also the Germans, have 
accustomed the people in the Far East to long-time credits. 
Obtaining their capital at low rates of interest at home, they will 
readily carry an account for six months or a year, whereas our 
dealers often require payment in cash even in part before the goods 
are delivered. We can scarcely hope to achieve great success if 
we do not recognize customs of credit such as these. 



1905] EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE 87 

Most important, perhaps, of all, as I have intimated before, is 
the fact that we do not always have the reputation of fair and 
courteous dealing, either politically or in a business way, though 
in these regards we are on the whole not worse than others. 
The Chinese distrust all. The record which the Americans have 
made in securing the concession for what is possibly the most 
important railway in all China (the Canton-Hankow line), has 
greatly discredited us. In the concession it was provided that 
the company should be and should remain American, but within 
a comparatively short time the control of a majority of the stock 
was placed in the hands of the Belgians, who were apparently 
so associated with the French and the Russians that the Chinese 
felt, and with reason, that they had been betrayed by the Americans 
into the hands of their enemies. Only under pressure of the threat 
of canceling the concession was the road finally bought back by 
Americans, and it is still an open question whether even the late 
dealings are all to be justified on moral grounds. This treatment, 
which the Chinese themselves believe to be dishonorable, and which 
very many Americans who have investigated the question likewise 
consider dishonorable, has so discredited our government and our 
business men, that the small amount of money made by a few 
private speculators has been lost hundreds of times over by loss 
of national and business prestige thereby incurred with its conse- 
quent ill effect upon our commerce. 

It is to be said, on the other hand, that American individuals, 
whether travelers or business men resident in China, are often, 
if not usually, better liked personally by the Chinese than are the 
citizens of almost any other country. Americans as a rule are 
more kindly and more courteous in their treatment of the Chinese 
than are others. They have been trained in a democratic country, 
and are more likely to treat the Chinese as equals, or at any rate 
as human beings, than as beings of an inferior order which may be 
beaten or kicked or insulted at will. 

Methods to be followed 

There has thus been indicated some ways in which commerce 
in the Far East differs from commerce in the United States or with 
other foreign countries. The question remains how we are to edu- 
cate our young men for commerce so as to meet these differing 
needs. Of course, the general commercial training found desir- 
able to fit young men for business in other lands is needed; then 
a reasonable equipment in languages, although English will be 



8'8 43D^university]^convocation [june 29 

found more helpful than any other. Spanish will be useful in 
the Philippine Islands, French in French Indo-China, Chinese in 
China, Japanese in Japan, etc. A general and a thorough knowl- 
edge of commercial geography is needed, and not merely a 
knowledge of the geography of the Far East. It is desirable for one 
who trades on a large scale to know where the other markets 
are of the rivals he has to meet, and what other customers they are 
supplying. A good knowledge of law, both of one's own country 
and of others is useful. In China particularly one should know the 
technical laws growing out of the principle of exterritoriality, which 
obtains in China in the dealings between the Chinese and foreigners. 
It might frequently be very useful to know the leading points in 
the commercial laws of Germany, France, England, and other coun- 
tries, because the laws of those countries are administered in China 
in the consular courts representing the different countries. Of 
course the knowledge of goods of the type which the merchant 
proposes to sell or buy is essential — this much in general in common 
with the training required in all commercial schools. 

To expand our trade in the Far East, however, we need to train 
our young men, whether they expect to serve in the extension of 
commerce as consuls or as salesmen and buyers, that, if they are 
to succeed, they must be prepared to stay in the Orient a consider- 
able length of time, and to study carefully the conditions. If their 
field of work is in China and they wish to be thorough, they must 
learn Chinese, at any rate must learn to speak the commercial 
Chinese, and that is no more difficult than to learn to speak German, 
although it is much more difficult to learn to write Chinese than to 
learn to write German. 

Of greater importance is it, however, to study the Chinese cus- 
toms of living, of manufacturing, of buying and selling, so that 
they may fit their supplies to the local demands, and may stand 
ready to learn what opportunities may arise for improving the 
products of China which they may wish to buy for export. Here- 
tofore the business of the foreigner in China has been mainly merely 
exporting and importing. His buying and selling among the natives 
has been done through his Chinese manager — ^the comprador — and 
he has not followed up that work. No Chinese firm here trusts its 
dealings with Americans to Americans. We must in time learn 
Chinese well enough to do our own work. But that is a far look 
ahead. The general principles of buying and selling, of account 
keeping etc. may be learned in . our schools. The details of an 
oriental business, for they are vastly different from those in our 
own country, can be learned only in the Orient. 



1905] EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE 89 

The principles of money and of banking, and especially of foreign 
exchange, must be learned, and thoroughly learned; first, because, 
on account of the present evils arising from fluctuations in ex- 
change, business is largely speculative and it is necessary to reduce 
the risks as far as possible ; and second, because it is important that 
every foreign dealer in China should so understand what is needed 
that his influence may continually be used to induce the Chinese 
government to improve its system. Too many of the suggestions 
already made by foreigners, some of them indeed largely accepted 
by the Chinese, have been suggestions in the wrong direction. 

It is important, too, for success in this commerce, that a pretty 
thorough training in economics be had, enough to know and to feel 
that it will pay as well to learn what the Orient can sell as what 
it will buy, to see that exploitation is not a sound policy for a 
permanent foreign trade, but that a large and permanent trade can 
be built up in the long run only if it is soundly based upon a fair 
exchange for the benefit of both countries, and that an investment 
in a foreign country for the purpose of developing its export trade 
may prove as useful as selling goods for the immediate profit of 
the exporter. 

Those interested in our commercial education with reference to 
the Far East may also look further and see what can be done to 
train capable Chinese here. That will also extend trade and I con- 
sider it of prime importance, both politically and commercially. It 
is well known that Japan, Belgium, Germany, and other countries 
are offering special inducements to young Chinese to go to those 
countries to study. There can be no doubt that when these Chinese 
return home to undertake work as engineers or as manufacturers 
or as merchants, they will certainly favor in the long run the coun- 
tries in which they have been trained. It is greatly to be desired 
that both our government and our people do what they can to 
encourage Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos and other orientals to come 
here to secure their training, both general and commercial. 

And, finally, it is important to emphasize again that a fundamental 
business principle to be taught in our commercial schools is that 
tolerant, liberal, fair dealing is the only wise policv from the busi- 
ness as well as from the moral point of view. This principle needs 
particularly to be emphasized in connection with the Orient, and 
with other countries less developed in commercial and manufactur- 
ing methods than our own, because the temptation is always stronger 
to deal unfairly with those unversed in western methods and be- 
cause, as a matter of fact, the attempt has been made and in many 
cases successfully, both by governments and by individuals, to ex- 
ploit unfairly many of the orientals. 



90 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

Friday morning, June 30 

EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE 

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN AMERICA AND ITS IMPORTANCE TO 
THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE NATION 

DEAN W. A. HENRY, DIRECTOR OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT 
STATION, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 

The one priceless thing in any truly great nation is the charac- 
ter of its people- As educators, there is no subject that should 
receive from us more serious consideration than the source and 
supply of a virile people to maintain and advance this nation. 
Upon this central thought I ask your attention. This nation can 
not continue in prosperity nor advance in all that goes to make 
it truly great unless behind all is a thrifty, satisfied farm popu- 
lation. The country supplies the city not only with bread and 
butter, but best of all, with brains. Cities wear out men just 
as surely and as ceaselessly as they wear out horses, and all other 
things that come to their eternal grinding. They have always been 
mills of destruction and they always will be. The intellectual and 
even the physical human forces of the city must ever be recruited 
or revivified from external sources, and this true, such reinforce- 
ment can only come from the farm. One does not have to think 
long to see why these things are so. City life is unnatural at 
best, and the more refined and luxurious it becomes, the more 
barren, artificial and useless it is. Your great caravansaries, like 
the Waldorf-Astoria and the St Regis, which represent to super- 
ficial minds the highest attainment of man in luxury and comfort, 
are about as important to humanity in its onward progress as 
are champagne and terrapin to the nourishment of a normal body. 

Value and importance of a strong farming people 

The country breeds strong men physically and normal men men- 
tally. This is true because of the nature of country life and 
country environment. The family relationships and duties lie pri- 
marily at the foundation of its great strength. Each child on 
the farm is an active partner, an impjortant factor in all the 
operations of the farm. He is vitally interested in whatever goes 
on. At the table, matters of communal interest are discussed. 
Throughout the day something is to be done. Care and responsi- 
"bility, the greatest of all forces working for the good of mortal 
man, come to the child born upon the farm. While early assumed, 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE 9I 

they are not too burdensome for the natural development of the 
mind. The daughters help in the house and the sons take up 
duties in field and stable. Each one has his place, his responsi- 
bilities, and as a reward has the growing strength of character 
that comes from well performed service. Rugged and hearty, the 
young men and women of the farm may seem uncouth and but half 
refined to our city friends. They may be awkward in action and 
less quick witted than the artificial city products, but back and 
behind all there is character, push and ambition — a love to do 
things, a willingness to carry responsibility, and a desire to be 
helpful. 

The country school is indeed but a poor apology of what it 
should be. Its poorly paid teachers are weak vessels. The instruc- 
tion period for the average country child is short. Yet despite 
all these adverse factors, country children outmatch city children 
in quality. I hold this to be so, not because our rural schools 
make to' any large extent for success, but rather because of the 
wholesome things of country life as a whole. It is the great 
school of the farm and the farm home that builds strong men and 
women. Many country homes fall far short of the ideal, and we 
should all strive earnestly to help them, though often we can do 
but little. The country schools are more easily within our reach 
for regeneration, and here lies one great opportunity. 

City vs country output 

Talk as you will of your graded city schools, whose great 
buildings are wrought according to the architect's latest ideals, 
with their sanitary, cheerful rooms. Point with pride to your 
carefully arranged courses of study, reaching from kindergarten to 
graduation ; instance the fine division of effort among your choicely 
trained teachers, who split educational hairs in their strivings to 
turn out a marvelous child product; work your city educational 
combination as you will, you have to admit after all that you can 
not turn out a manhood and womanhood that approaches the country 
product. Our farming people comprise less than 36% of the total 
population of this country, yet from these country homes, meager 
and poor as they often are, there is a steady outpouring of human 
strength and character into the cities, there in some measure to 
purify, strengthen and revivify its struggling existence. Examine 
the life history of your legal, educational, and business acquaint- 
ances, and you will learn that a surprisingly large percentage of 
them were country reared. 



92 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

An illustration of city education 

Some of you are amateur gardeners. You will recall some of 
your early essays in garden making. You will recall boxes of 
blooming pansies, English daisies, and tomato plants offered for 
sale in springtime. These tomato plants were the product of some 
gardener, who grew them like the man's razors — to be sold. 
The spindling plants, often a foot in hight, presented blossoms 
even, the more exciting your interest and attention in the promise 
of early fruitage. When you took these long, lank weaklings, 
with their premature blooms, to your garden, you already had 
doubts about the wisdom of your effort. When the plants were 
set in the ground and the sun shot out its hot rays, and the 
chilling winds blew, and the cold rains fell, and the cool nights 
came, the hothouse specimens were racked and tried to the ut- 
most. They turned yellow, lopped over to one side, and for weeks 
barely held to life in a seemingly hopeless struggle. The ordin- 
ary environment of outdoor nature was too much for them after 
their abnormal greenhouse development. Such plants represent 
in a fair way the output of young people from your city schools, 
delicately trained, shielded from every rough element that influences 
mind and body, and yet finally forced to pass out into the com- 
mon, rough, everyday world. 

The degeneracy of eastern agriculture 

All of us agree on the importance and value of our rural popu- 
lation as a primal factor in maintaining this nation on a high 
standard of excellence. This true, let me call your attention to 
one of the most significant and disagreeable subjects that can 
come to the investigator of American conditions. I refer to the 
degeneracy of eastern agriculture. All over the East there has 
been going on almost to the present time a steady outpour of brains 
and push from the farm to other avocations and to other regions. 
The flower of the youth reared on eastern farms has for two 
generations past been leaving the farms and rushing into the 
cities and to the West. Bright, energetic, restless ones passed from 
farm to city in a desire to better their condition. A vast flood poured 
westward, taking Horace Greeley's advice to " Go west and grow 
up with the country." In this great out-pouring, the plodding- 
ones, the patient ones, and worst of all the indifferent, careless 
ones for the most part remained to carry on the farm after some 
fashion, unless it was entirely abandoned. The descendants of 



1905] 



EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE 



93 



any o£ the earlier ones remaining on the farms who might possess 
energy or particular ambition, in time likewise pushed off from 
the farm. Thus there has been an unconscious but powerful selec- 
tion going on for a long time past to the great disadvantage of 
eastern farming. 

Western competition crippled eastern farmers 

As though the loss of this great store of virility to the East 
was not enough, the people who pushed westward and their descend- 
ants, backed by the money they took with them, or which was 
sent them from the East, combined to put upon the market a vast 
output of agricultural products, which came into competition, 
through cheap railway transportation, with the output of their 
brothers and others left upon the eastern farms. The combined 
influence of a drainage of brains from eastern farms and a tremen- 
dous in-pouring of western products to eastern markets was most 
depressing, and great has been the decline of agriculture in the 
New England and Middle States. To show its effect, let me call 
your attention to table i which shows the total value of farms and 
the personal property in four states of the Union. 

TABLE I'^ VALUE OF FARMS AND PERSONAL PROPERTY 

Dollars. 000,000 omitted 





1850 


i85o 


1870 


1880 


1890 


1900 


Maine 


67 
650 
416 

35 


97 

936 

776 
155 


105 

II96 
960 

288 


124 

I2I7 
I26I 

420 


122 

II39 
II95 

500 




New York 


1070 

II99 
812 


Ohio 


Wisconsin 







It will be seen that the state of Maine, for example, had farms 
and personal property thereon valued at $67,000,000 in 1850. By 
1880 the value had advanced to $124,000,000. Then depression 
followed. For your own State, once the " Empire State " in agri- 
culture, as it still is in population and wealth, we find the farms 
and personal property in 1850 worth $650,000,000. By 1880 they 
had nearly doubled, reaching the vast sum of $1,217,000,000. Then 
came a serious decline. Indeed, the decline had already begun 

■^The statistics here presented are from U. S. Census Rep't, 1900; U.S. Dep't Agric. Sec. 
Foreign Markets Bulletin 9, Trade of Denmark; Bureau Animal Industry, BuUetm 69, Poultry 
and Egg Industry of Leading European Countries 



94 



43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 



[JUNE 30 



before 1880, for your State no doubt attained its greatest agricul- 
tural prosperity about 1865-75. And so by the year 1900 we find 
a shrinkage of about $150,000,000 in agricultural values in this 
State ! Wisconsin, as the table shows, has steadily advanced in 
material wealth. Here is a truly western state that has gained by 
the losses of your State. Much of the wealth of New York and 
other Eastern States, their brain and brawn, were brought west 
to help build up Wisconsin and other western states, which 
in turn pressed the products of their farms into the eastern markets, 
to the discouragement and degeneracy of agriculture thereabouts. 
West of Ohio there has as yet come no depression in agricultural 
values, that state being about the dividing line. 

Value of farms 

Let us study the problem in a somewhat different form, as pre- 
sented in table 2. 



TABLE 2 AVERAGE VALUE OF FARMS 
Dollars 





1850 


i860 


1870 


1880 


1890 


1900 


New York 


3250 
1414 


4078 
1893 


4708 
2335 


4381 
2663 


4280 
3262 


3917 
4041 


Wisconsin 







By 1870 New York farms had reached an average value of over 
$4700 each. Then came the decline, until in 1900 there was an 
average depreciation of nearly $800 on each farm. 

Compare this with the remarkable showing of Wisconsin. And 
yet all the time this depression has been going on, there has been 
an enormous increase in the population and the wealth of your 
State. 

Table 3 shows the capital invested in the farms and manufactures 
of this State. 

TABLE 3 NEW YORK CAPITAL INVESTED 

Dollars. 000,000 omitted 





1850 


i860 

1 


1870 


1880 


1890 


1900 


Manufactures 

Farms 


100 
650 


173 
936 


367 
1196 


514 
1217 


1 130 
1139 


1651 

1070 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE 95 

We see, while the farm values of New York have advanced less 
than 70% in 50 years, the manufacturing interests have advanced 
over 1600%. In 20 )'^ears, closing with 1900, the manufacturing 
interests of New York multiplied 300%, while the farm interests 
shrunk 12^. New York was once indeed the "Empire State" 
agriculturally — now several outrank her in the wealth of their 
farms. Why should this great State have retrograded agricul- 
turally, when in population, in wealth and in manufactures, she 
has advanced so grandly? 

Causes of retrogression 

Let us now consider briefly the decline of agricultural values 
in the East. Land values have shrunk during the last 30 years 
not only in the eastern United States, but in Great Britain and all 
western Europe. The rich farmers of Holland, the peasants of 
France, the tillers of the soil in Germany and Denmark, all have 
felt, in common with our eastern farmers, depression, which seemed 
above and be3'ond their ability to withstand or to combat. We 
can hardly enumerate all the factors that brought about this depres- 
sion, but the mighty ones are easily observed and described. The 
primary cause was the enormous extension of steamboat and rail- 
way transportation. In western America, in . Australia, South 
America and India railways pushed their long arms over the plains 
to carry the enormous output of those regions to the seaboard ; 
thence they were transported by steamboats at rapid pace to the 
great marts of the world. Thus the New York farmer found new 
competitors in the market. His wool, formerly so profitable, must 
be sold in competition with that from the great plains of Australia 
and South America. Wheat, once his leading crop, is now lightly 
considered, because of the much greater output, grown at low 
prices, on our western plains, in Argentina, Australia, and India. 
The discovery of mineral oils depressed the price of animal fat, 
and here another blow was dealt the farmer, all suffering in this 
alike. 

Foreign markets affected 

English agriculture, with the abolition of the corn laws, suf- 
fered enormously through the importation of vast quantities of 
food products to the island. In most ways there is no better farmer 
than the British tenant farmer, but this enormous influx of agri- 
cultural products has been beyond his powers to combat, and he has 
largely yielded to what seemed to him the inevitable, with the 
result that landlords have seen their rural estates decline in value 



96 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

almost to the vanishing point. Holland was another country hard 
hit in the agricultural depression here described. On the whole, 
however, they were wiser than the British farmers and did not 
fall so far, and have been recuperating more rapidly. 

A lesson from Denmark 

The purpose of this paper is to plead for a strong, virile, agri- 
cultural people, as the rock foundation of this nation. Such a 
people must be ambitious, prosperous, and happy. Only when so 
constituted and grounded can the human product of the farm, its 
choicest fruitage, be such as to sustain this nation as it must be 
sustained, in times of trial. I therefore call your attention to 
an example of how one nation has withstood this agricultural de- 
pression and out of adversity gained strength and made material 
advancement. I do this for the purpose of teaching a lesson to the 
eastern farmer — the New York farmer — and to you who have deal- 
ings with him as educators. 

Remember, first of all, that little Denmark covers less than 
15,000 square miles of territory — in other words it is about one 
third as large as this State, or one fourth as large as Wisconsin. 
Its people number over 2,200,000, so that its population density 
is about that of this State. When agricultural depression struck 
Denmark, as it did Old England, New England, and New York, 
the blow was staggering, and this coupled with the loss of a part 
of her territory through German rapacity, might well have dis- 
couraged any people. Not so the plucky Danes. What Denmark 
has suffered has been the fire of purification, out of which has come 
one of the finest peoples that the world has in sight today. We 
all hear wonder-eyed of the marvelous energies of our Japanese 
friends. Let me point your attention to a people still more wonder- 
ful in the lines of peace and agriculture. When depression rested 
like a pall over Danish agriculture all were aroused to action and 
agents were sent by the government to study what other countries 
were doing agriculturally and what the English markets demanded 
in the way of agricultural products. While the English farmer was 
wondering what had struck him,^the Danish farmer was sending en- 
vo3^s to study how to capture the English markets, if perchance 
there were any markets left. 

Danish butter production 

England is, on the whole, a richer country agriculturally than 
Denmark. England had as great opportunities for producing dairy 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE 97 

products as had Denmark, yet Denmark has captured the English 
butter market. The dairy school at Copenhagen was early estab- 
lished and an army of butter makers trained for the work. Trained 
experts traveled from city to city studying the British markets and 
reporting weekly what those markets demanded. The Danish 
government established butter scoring contests, so that each maker 
knew how his butter compared in quality with that of his fellow 
butter makers. Forty years ago Denmark made as poor butter as 
any on earth; today there is practically no poor butter made in 
Denmark. Her net annual export of butter — the quantity sent out 
over and above the quantity imported — is now over $27,000,000 in 
value, and the annual gross exports are over $35,000,000. The 
gross exports of butter, pork products and horses from the United 
States in 1903 and from Denmark in 1901 are shown in table 4. 

TABLE 4 EXPORTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 

Dollars, ooo omitted 



United States 
1903 



Denmark 
1901 



Horses 

Pork products. 
Butter 



3152 

aii2iio 

1604 



3082 
22214 
35456 



Having captured the best butter market in the world, the Danes 
next set about to produce high quality pork. Government agents 
were sent to England to study where she secured her choicest pork 
products, and learning that these came from Ireland, representa- 
tives were sent to that country to study how Irish bacon was pro- 
duced. A great sum was spent by the Agricultural College and 
otherwise in studying the food combinations necessary to produce 
the desired quality of product. The result of all this intelligent 
effort is that in 1901 Denmark exported over $22,000,000 worth of 
pork products. It is hard to comprehend such large sums. We 
can best give you some idea of the volume of this output by telling 
you that this great country of ours, with its boasted pork pro- 
duction, exported in 1903 a little over $112,000,000 worth of pork 
products of all kinds. Pork production is a prime industry in a 
dozen great western states, and yet little Denmark, one fourth as 
big as Wisconsin and one third as large as New York, exported 

''If lard compounds are included, add $3,607,000. 



98 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

about one fifth as much pork products as did this whole great 
country. Even of horses Denmark exports almost as many dollars 
worth as does the United States, 

Egg production 

One other illustration, and I am done with this line, interesting 
as it is. 

After having gotten well on in butter and pork production, the 
farmers of Denmark, by aid of the government and their agricul- 
tural colleges, but especially through their poultry associations and 
by cooperative effort in collecting and marketing, advanced vigor- 
ously along the line of poultry improvement. Up to 1885 the egg 
exports of Denmark were nominal, although larger than those of 
the United States at the present time. By the year 1890 the exports 
had reached a million and a half dollars for that year, with a rapid 
increase, until in 1903, the last year for which we have complete 
figures, the exports of eggs from that country, a third as large as 
the State of New York, were practically $8,000,000. 

These facts are shown in table 5. 

TABLE 5 DANISH EGG EXPORTS 
Year Value of eggs, ooo omitted 

187s $ 451 

1880 520 

1885 900 

1890 1 541 

1895 2258 

1900 4870 

1903 8092 

Total New York egg production 

1899 8630 

Again, let us introduce other figures for comparison. By the 
census returns, the great State of New York, three times as large 
as Denmark, in the year 1899 produced altogether $8,630,000 worth 
of eggs, or scarcely more than Denmark exported in 1903'. 

Total agricultural exports 

But, you will say, we have picked our statements for comparison 
and after all the American farmer is what he boasts — the leader 
of the world. My friends, do you know how much our total ex- 



ig05] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE 99 

ports are? Dropping large figures, there are, in round numbers, 
$11 worth of agricultural products sent out of this country annually 
for every man, woman, and child in the country. This includes 
all returns from cotton, wheat, corn, livestock, meats of all kinds 
— all agricultural exports in fact. Denmark, with a population 
as dense as this State, exports $33 worth of agricultural products, 
for every man, woman, and child in the country, or three times as 
much as the United States, per capita. 

It is a most significant fact that Denmark pays the United States 
millions of dollars each year for feeding stuffs. In ordinary years 
her corn bill amounts to about $8,000,000. Think of it, friends! 
Corn is shipped from Iowa and Nebraska by rail to Buffalo, through 
the Erie canal, and by ocean vessels to Copenhagen. There it is 
taken by rail to the country and drawn out to the farms. When 
fed to pigs and chickens, their products go back to England to 
find a market. Some of the corn fed in Denmark actually passes 
across the whole State of New York, close to its thousands of farms, 
and yet many New York farmers will tell you that they can make no 
money farming. 

How Denmark has advanced 

Denmark has advanced to this marvelously creditable position 
not because of her geographic position, not through military 
prowess, but through the intelligent, wise action of her agricultural 
people, filled with hope and ambition, guided and abetted by a far- 
seeing, broad minded general government. Little Denmark, only 
one third as large as the State of New York, has scores of agricul- 
tural schools of high and low degree. The Danish government, 
instead of spending money niggardly for agricultural advancement, 
as is the case in this country, uses money wherever and whenever 
it can be judiciously applied for agricultural advancement. Not 
only are agricultural schools of all grades given aid, but many 
other lines of effort receive government help. For example, about 
$10,000 is spent annually at the Agricultural College of Copen- 
hagen for the expenses incident to scoring packages of butter sent 
to that institution for inspection by the creameries of the country. 
Through this aid all the creameries have constant knowledge of the 
quality of their butter product, making the maintenance of a high 
standard a relatively easy possibility. 

With all her schools for agriculture and all her forces operating 
for good, Danish agriculture would have reached nothing like its 
present paramount excellence were it not for a spirit of loyalty 
and hearty cooperation running through the souls and actions of 



lOO 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

this splendid people. The following from a distinguished writer^ 
is in point : 

Their agricultural instruction, although excellent as far as it 
goes, is not sufficient in itself to make the Danish small holder the 
successful farmer he is, but it quickens his intelligence as a follower. 
His success is due to cooperation and expert guidance. The 
Societies of Kontrol established all over the country on the initia- 
tive of the Royal Danish Agricultural Society may be cited as an 
illustration of this, and also of enlightened combination being 
pushed in a direction hardly thought of in this country [Scotland]. 
They are essentially combinations for controlling the breeding and 
management of cows, but at the same time they bring equally to 
every farmer the opportunity of adopting with advantage expert 
advice on scientific and systematic methods of conducting farm 
practice. 

The farmers of a district, owning say 400 or more cows, join 
together and employ the services of an inspector nominated by the 
Royal Danish Agricultural Society. This man is usually college 
trained. For the little group of farmers he serves he is a most 
valuable agent. He goes from farm to farm helping the farmer 
keep his set of account books. He tests the milk of each cow on 
each farm, making all the computations necessary, giving the farmer 
advice and counsel as to which cows to reserve and breed from 
and which to dispose of because of worthlessness. He inspects 
the feeding stuffs furnished the stock and makes recommendations 
thereon. He further counsels with regard to fertilizers, seeds, the 
rotation of crops, etc. The government aid granted to these author- 
ized helpers or farmers counselors, is a little over $50 each, a year. 
Two years ago there were over 250 such traveling counselors, and 
that number is probably nearly doubled by this time. How many 
trained men are there in this great State today who give their 
whole service to the farmer? 

In pork production, first of all the Danish government sent special 
agents to study the bacon markets of Great Britain and afterwards 
conducted extensive studies looking into the proper production of 
bacon of the highest quality. This research work was done through 
the Agricultural College at Copenhagen. Today a large part of the 
Danish pork product is the output of cooperative pork packing 
establishments. The poultry industry, which has advanced with 
such enormous rapidity, is the outgrowth of society and com- 
munal effort. Poultry societies, with large memberships, are to be 
found scattered all over the country. We too in America have 

^William Bruce on " Some Features of Dairy Farming in Denmark," Transactions of the 
Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, 1905. 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE lOI 

poultry societies, but are they not usually studying the " fine points," 
rather than the " fine doing " of their birds ? But not only are there 
poultry societies in Denmark, but what is more important, there 
are cooperative &gg handling and selling societies. Through these 
societies the producers are able to place their eggs on the market 
in the best possible manner at the smallest possible cost for con- 
ducting the business. 

Let me tell you that from personal observation I know that 
Danish farmers are full of push and progress, that they are a happy, 
contented and prosperous people, not content in stupid idleness, but 
ambitious in thrift and progress. They dress well, have comfort- 
able homes, and live well, and this despite the fact of living on farms 
that have produced crops for thousands of years, despite having 
to help maintain a standing army, supporting royalty, and even 
having to care for a navy. We must remember that the agri- 
cultural depression which struck our Eastern States, hit Den- 
mark just the same as it did these Eastern States. We must remem- 
ber that emigration has worked for Denmark much as it has worked 
against New York agriculture. Taking all the facts into considera- 
tion, I contend that Denmark stands out as the finest example the 
world has produced of how an agricultural people can rise through 
discouragement and pending disaster to a high standard of national 
excellence. 

Agricultural depression in the East not a necessity 

With Denmark as an example, I maintain that the depression 
which struck the East and which to some degree holds today, is 
an evidence of weakness in the fibre and make-up of the people, 
and as such is a matter for serious study by all students of national 
life in this country. When the eastern farmer felt the severe blow 
of merciless competition he was staggered and seemed to have lost 
his reason. The New York farmer, left unaided by the State 
government, and almost unhelped by the national govern- 
ment, shrank from the conflict and yielded his high position — for 
the time was when no farmer on earth stood higher in intelligence, 
progress, and all that goes to make up a worthy people, times con- 
sidered, than did the farmers of this State. Struggling along, with- 
out specific help for his troubles, and with no union between him 
and his brother farmers, grievous has been his financial loss and 
many his agricultural failures. When wheat grown in the West 
knocked down the price of wheat in the East, the New York 
farmer steadily kept on " growing wheat because his father had 



I02 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

made money growing wheat." Even today there are thousands of 
New York farmers producing wheat at a loss of 30 or 40 cents on 
every bushel grown, and still they do not know what is hurting 
them. Others are producing hay at ruinously low prices, depleting 
the fertility of their farms and eking out but the meanest sort of a 
living. While little Denmark, one third as large as this State, is 
employing traveling instructors by the hundreds, our farmers are 
still struggling with but a minimum of agricultural instruction. 
While the Denmark farmers are feeling the powerful effects of 
intelligent cooperation, our farmers " go it alone," and reap the 
usual reward of single handed effort. 

A sorry condition of affairs agriculturally 

If you wish to measure in some degree the fearful depression 
of agriculture in the East, even down to these days, spend a week 
in a western state — any of them, from Wisconsin to Texas — and 
you will be profoundly impressed with the differences of thought, 
bearing and action of the two peoples. The western man is eager 
and enthusiastic, his farm is the best in the world, his crops the 
biggest, his stock the finest, and his children the brightest. All 
are the joy of his life and his face brightens and his eyes sparkle 
as he sounds their praises. The eastern farmer will show much 
interest when you speak of Kansas agriculture, but speak of New 
York or Connecticut farming and his eyes grow dull, his face be- 
comes a blank, and he sits limp and listless before you. He prefers 
to talk of anything under the sun save his own farm and what 
pertains thereto. And yet these eastern farms, for inherent beauty, 
for all that goes for home making, for possibilities in the range of 
crops, and for good markets, are without a rival anywhere in the 
world. 

" As a man thinketh, so is he." 

What promise have we for the future progress of this nation 
when we find a farming people who speak disparagingly of the 
lands about them, who complain of lack of profits and who com- 
plain of a worn-out soil only a generation or two removed from 
virgin conditions. Old Europe, where thousands of years mark 
the age of her fields, utters no such cry of soil degradation. 

You will understand, I am sure, that in pointing out the agricul- 
tural depression in the East I do not place all farmers in one 
class. On thousands of farms there was exhibited heroic courage 
amid the greatest discouragements. These farmers have more than 
held their own. They and their families loved the land and their 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE I03 

country homes. They have saved the state from disaster and are 
today the nucleus about which is being built up a new and better 
agriculture. 

On the upgrade 

In my judgment the period of depression for eastern agriculture 
has reached the bottom and is now on the upgrade. Whoever will 
study the problem carefully must see evidences of this betterment. 
One of the reasons for improvement is the fact that good farming 
lands in this country are now nearly all occupied. The profligacy 
of this nation in parting with its wealth in virgin lands and forests 
has almost run its course. The time is about at an end when any- 
bod)^ worthy or degenerate, can secure from this government, by 
mere occupancy, a generous allotment of land. 

One of the disastrous secondary effects of giving away the 
national domain was to breed in the minds of men light regard 
for land ownership, for that which costs little is little appreciated. 
In this country men had come to so undervalue the possession of 
land that they parted with it as they swap jackknives. With the 
passing of the homestead movement, a profound change is coming 
over the minds of the people in regard to the possession of land. 
Everywhere we notice how they are coming to regard country 
property as something to be dearly held. The love of the ancestral 
homestead is now impelling the purchase of much land. Men of 
high and low degree are searching out and securing country prop- 
erty. The railway official, the banker, the lawyer, the merchant, 
the mechanic — in fact all classes of urban people are thinking coun- 
tryward as never before. You hear farm matters talked over on 
the railway train, in the office, and on the streets. Some of these 
developments are indeed but fads, wild exuberances of a new senti- 
mentalism, but fortunately they are not particularly dangerous. 
These abnormities do but indicate a deep, underlying human desire 
to live close to nature on the land. More important than is this 
city movement toward the country, is the reflex effect it has upon 
the people already on the farm. When others think so highly of 
lands and country life, then the farmer, if for no other reason, will 
begin to place merited value thereon. 

Agricultural education 

A generation ago the agricultural colleges were regarded by the 
farmers with mild enmity and narrow suspicion, which largely shut 
out the modicum of good these institutions were at first capable of 
accomplishing. Not only in those old days were our agricultural 



104 43^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

colleges almost despised by the farmer, but they were regarded 
with indifference, or something worse, by educators. There was 
no body of agricultural knowledge available in pedagogic form for 
the purposes of instruction. As these men looked over the field, 
they saw nothing that could seemingly be taught with advantage 
to pupils as other scholastic branches were taught. Furthermore, 
no students were seeking agricultural instruction. What was the 
use, reasoned these teachers, of departing from educational tradi- 
tions. But our agricultural colleges have outlived those dark days 
of indifference and contempt. Fortunately in those early times 
here and there was a strong, patient worker, who held on to what 
was, and prophetlike, looked ahead for better days. Slowly, but 
persistently, these men put agricultural knowledge into teaching 
form and built up courses of useful instruction. The experiment 
stations added mightily to encouragement and advance. Gradually 
the farmers began to have faith in these institutions and students 
began to flock to the colleges for instruction. Now we have reached 
a period when in some of our middle states the agricultural colleges 
are the most popular of all educational institutions in their hold on 
the people and in the enthusiasm with which they are supported. 
The Eastern States have hung back and let the West outstrip them 
in this movement, but they are now swinging into line. 

At Washington we have that great central force for agricultural 
advancement, our national Department of Agriculture. In your 
own State you have the Department of Agriculture, with its central 
offices in this Capitol. As powerful factors you can point to Cornell 
and Geneva. Great as are all these forces for good at this time, 
let me say to you, as one who has seen these things come on from 
the most insignificant beginning, that their growth and power have 
only begun. Where you are spending a dollar in the support of 
these institutions, you will soon be giving a score, and where you 
are now receiving one measure of good therefrom, you will soon 
be receiving a thousand. Now you have an agricultural school at 
Cornell. Soon it will be vastly greater than at present, and in addi- 
tion there will be lower agricultural schools of great power and 
influence scattered about the State. Your farmers institute efforts 
will be strengthened and take on forms of usefulness not dreamed 
of today. 

Cooperation 

The combination of increased intelligence in agriculture and the 
deepening love of rural affairs will in due time have a marvelous 
effect upon the productive capacity of our rural people. An intelli- 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE I05 

gent, land-loving family, satisfied with its environment, will yield 
a far larger farm product than under the past conditions of unrest 
and discouragement. In the better days coming every member of 
the family will work with intelligence and enthusiasm, and as a 
result there will be vastly increased production, which will in turn 
bring a thousand blessings to tend still further to contentment and 
happiness. 

The culmination of all these improved conditions will bring about 
a new factor of the highest value to the farmer — cooperation. 
When our farmer friend has grown truly intelligent, when he comes 
to love and properly appreciate his farm, as he surely will, when 
the brotherhood of man is recognized, then will come the great 
advance, that of industrial cooperation. The cohesiveness of Ameri- 
can farmers in the past has been like that of dry sand in one's 
hand. In the near future they will join together in securing the 
best live stock for their flocks and herds, the best grains and trees 
for their fields and orchards, and the most effective fertilizers for 
their soils ; then especially will they join together in assembling 
and marketing their products in the most judicious economical 
manner. 

Intelligent cooperation among farmers is as sure to follow in 
the present upward movement as is the sun to rise tomorrow. In- 
telligent production and economical marketing, through cooperation, 
will place the American farmer in the very front rank of all that 
goes to make for enlightened citizenship. 

To my mind these better days are close at hand, for progress is 
cumulative, moving with accelerating pace when the way is clear. 
As educators it is our pleasure, as it is our duty, to hasten this 
glad day. 



Io6 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 



ADDRESS 

BY HON. WILLET M. HAYS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE, 

WASHINGTON D. C. 

Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am indeed pleased to 
be here, and especially pleased to meet this great western man, 
Professor Henry, who was a neighbor of mine in the West, Pro- 
fessor Henry, it is true, is a product of your own State, a product 
of your own agricultural coUege, and it was here that he was first 
directed into the work of country life education; but it was in the 
West that he developed his many broad ideas. He has told you in- 
telligently and forcibly today of the greatness of this movement 
and has urged you to get into line with it. 

In building up country life in the United States many conditions 
have had to be met and overcome. Eighty years ago about 75% of 
the people of this country were engaged in agricultural pursuits ; 
now only about 35% are engaged in agriculture. Today in New 
York State only about 14% of the people are on the farm. This 
change has been brought about largely by economic conditions. 
Eighty years ago manufacturing in the United States was done 
largely in the country; today it is confined almost wholly to the 
cities, and it has grown enormously. The people are using relatively 
more manufactured goods than they did. Transportation has de- 
veloped greatly and commercial business has grown rapidly per 
capita. The professions have increased in numbers and the gov- 
ernment functions have developed. The number of people employed 
for personal services by persons of wealth require ever increasing 
proportions of the entire population. All these conditions have 
drawn the people to the cities. 

The country, on the other hand, requires fewer people than it 
did. Great improvements in machinery, better methods of farm- 
ing, the extension of the agricultural area into the great plains of 
the West, better plants and better animals, have led to a much 
larger production of agricultural commodities per farm worker. 
Today the production of our farmers is largely limited to two or 
three kinds — the raw products of food, the raw products of cloth- 
ing, and, one may add, horses. 

The nation eats only so much per capita and the raw product 
for clothing per capita does not vary greatly in amount. The peo- 
ple pay more for clothing, but the greater cost of manufacturing 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE I07 

causes the main addition to the price of both our food and cloth- 
ing. All these conditions have caused a natural decrease to 
the percentage of the whole people on the farm. There has not 
been need of so many persons in agriculture. But there has been 
another force at work which has been partly responsible for the 
decrease, and we educators are somewhat to blame for it. Our 
school system has been so organized as to lead many people away 
from the farm. 

We are now reaching the limit of reduction in the percentage 
of rural population; we can not have another 40% loss; we can 
not lose more, perhaps, than 10%, leaving the farmers at 25% of 
the whole; and this loss must be more gradual than that of the 
past. We are reaching a point where we will have a nearly perma- 
nent farm population. The movement of people from the farm to 
the city will greatly decrease and there will not be many moving 
from city to farm. Of course there will always be some movement 
from the city to the farm and from the farm to the city, but it will 
affect very small percentages, or fractions of 1%. It hardly needs 
consideration, once the balance has been nearly reached. 

But the problem we now need especially to discuss is that of edu- 
cating for country life those boys and girls who are raised in the 
country and who are to become our farmers and the home makers 
of the future. I might almost put the emphasis on the home makers. 
I have a western point of view and probably a novel one, and you 
will pardon personal reference. I was brought up on a farm in 
the West and became a farmer, managing the home farm for some 
years. I also had experience in investigating and helping in the 
introduction of agriculture into our local rural schools, into agri- 
cultural high schools, and developing agricultural collegiate educa- 
tion, and I have reached the belief that we are gradually but surely 
organizing an adequate system of country life education. 

You educators who are interested in the older kinds of institu- 
tions — the general academies, colleges and universities, and the 
so called sectarian institutions — will think me radical, perhaps, but 
I ask only that you follow the steps of advancement in this new 
education, and I am sure you will like these new institutions. I 
hope you will try at least to get started samples of state agricultural 
high schools in the Eastern States such as some of the Western 
States have developed. 

The consolidated rural schools have been a success in the Western 
States and also in the Eastern States wherever they have been 



I08 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

established. I believe they should be developed in all localities in 
all regions where rich farm lands will prodvice sufficient revenue. 

We have heard the philanthropist and the preacher say, " Try 
to get the people out on the land." There should be no more peo- 
ple engaged in farming than that number which can secure profita- 
ble remuneration. If the percentage on the farm had run down 
to 50% instead of to 35%, our farmers would be overproducing, 
and while all other vocations would be shorthanded and very profit- 
able, farming would be very much overdone. The S5% need the 
65% to supply them with a market, and if 50% had only half the 
whole people to clothe and feed, our farmers would indeed have 
very hard times. There must be a proper balance of the people 
in the city and the country, and the law of supply and demand will 
always keep the proper balance. Theories and desires must ever 
continue to bow before the great economic forces. 

Our great problem now is to educate the people in country life 
who are to be farmers ; not to try to cure city ills by moving people 
against a tide which is recognizing that the number required on 
the farm is growing less and the number required for city vocation 
is increasing annually. 

Years ago prominent educators said : " Educate the few and 
they will bring up the masses." Today we have the few educated, 
and it is their duty to bring up the masses, and one of the best 
means — the best means today — is through a proper system of edu- 
cation. The masses are the plain delvers, the workers in the cities 
and in the country; and we need, as Professor Henry has said, 
a broad plan of finance in this part of agricultural advancement. 
We need a broad plan of advancement in every division of country 
life — in building good roads, and in other matters that need to be 
financed, as we finance great navies and great armies. Ten 
millions for agriculture and a quarter of a billion for army and 
navy by the national and state governments, may not be investing 
too much in the weapon, but certainly too little is being invested 
in strengthening the arm which wields the weapon. 

Our leaders should not lack for broad plans for building up the 
education of the plain people of this country. The thoughtful men 
of our country are now ready for such organization of education 
in our primary and secondary schools as will build up a system 
of education that will place the technical education of the people 
who do the real work of the country — and of the city, and of the 
homes everywhere, on a plane far above that which it now occupies. 
We have successfully inaugurated technical education for the pro- 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE I09 

fessions ; the time has come for a broad movement for the intro- 
duction of technical education in every line of industrial work 
to which it can be applied ; and it can be applied to nearly every 
line of work, especially to agriculture, to the city industries, and 
to home making. 

In some of the states education is largely being cared for in the 
state institutions. In many of the older states of the East this 
movement has gone forward with much less rapidity. Private and 
public institutions everywhere have turned their attention very 
largely to city life education, and we have a great system growing 
up, especially developed throughout the West, with city graded 
schools at the base, city high schools above, and universities at the 
apex, and other institutions as adjuncts of this general scheme. 
The teachers, the texts and the ideals of even our rural schools 
have been turned toward city life. 

But a belief is arising that our agricultural colleges are at the 
head of a new system. A system of large rural schools, consoli- 
dated into large central schools where the wealth of the soil and 
density of population will admit; of agricultural high schools, with 
one in every 10 counties, and, in some cases, one in every county ; 
and of agricultural colleges, all articulated into one system, will 
make a ladder which the young men and women who are to remain 
in the country or who are to work with farm problems can climb. 
Even in the lower grades there should be more practical, industrial 
work; a great deal of industrial work should be provided in the 
agricultural high school, and more special courses than now in the 
agricultural college. I have arrived at this belief because of my 
connection with some successful experiments along this line in 
Minnesota. The proportion of subject-matter as worked out from 
17 or 18 years experience by the Minnesota Agricultural High 
School is, speaking generally, one third general studies, one third 
science as related to agriculture, and one third technical subjects 
related to agriculture and home economics. This may appear a 
very radical proposition, but it works out, and it sends these young 
men and young women back to the farm no longer feeling that 
farming does not give opportunities, but with a great pride and 
interest in the business and in the country home and with the be- 
lief that the work will make them more useful citizens and a benefit 
to the community at large. In addition to this general system, the 
number of adjuncts to this system of country life education, such 
as farmers institutes and nature study work are rapidly increasing 
in kind and quantity. A great many university and college exten- 



no 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

sion projects are being started which provide a system of schools 
and teachers who are constantly in touch with the farm boys and 
girls, giving them not only knowledge, but the best methods of 
farming and of home making, and instilling into them the spirit, 
the belief, and the interest in things in the country; and in this 
adjunct work your State is in the lead. 

The national Department of Agriculture is cooperating with the 
agricultural experiment stations of every state and with many state 
agricultural colleges. The nation and the states are building up 
a system of research which is providing a body of knowledge of 
agriculture and home economics of highest interest and value in 
developing courses of study in the three classes of schools devoted 
to country life education. We have a great and growing country 
life literature, with growing educational theories. A great deal 
of this subject-matter can be put in these courses of study without 
reducing the number of other essential studies. We have no reason 
today to fear that technical education will reduce the attention 
given to general education, nor to fear the general educational 
effect of technical subjects. These studies will bring the student 
closer to the realities of agriculture and the home, and they have 
a large educational value. As to the proper proportion of these 
subjects, if we could so organize our schools that we could put into 
these consolidated schools, for instance, a minor part of agricultural 
instruction and instruction in home economics, with a teacher of 
agriculture constantly in touch with many farms in the neighbor- 
hood, we could keep pupils in school longer and give them a far 
better education than now. If we could have the pupils in an 
agricultural high school, say for two years, and then divide the 
work, say one third to agriculture or the industrial subjects con- 
cerning the home, one third to the sciences related to industrial 
work, and one third to general subjects, we would have an im- 
mensely broader course than we have been giving. It is not claimed 
that the proper scheme for organizing and financing country life 
education has been worked out. A comprehensive plan is needed 
and a comprehensive plan will cost much money, but this line of 
expenditure is peculiar in that it increases the earning capacity of 
the people as well as their capacity to sustain a high type of home 
and a high country civilization. Take as a concrete example a 
great state with rich land in every township, with, we will say, 
10,000 rural schools and an agricultural college. Comparatively 
few students out of the whole number attend the agricultural col- 
lege; a portion of the farm boys and girls attend the city high 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE ttl 

schools or private secondary schools and colleges, or the state uni- 
versity. Part of these go into city life and part return to the farm, 
though very few are technically trained for farming or especially 
trained for conducting the farm home. Let us suppose that these 
10,000 rural schools should be changed into 2000 consolidated 
schools. In these 2000 consolidated schools, which might properly 
be called farm schools, we should teach the general branches, with 
a due proportion of industrial education to the 400.000 farm pupils 
in the State. In 10 agricultural high school areas each covering 
10 counties, provide instruction for 10,000 pupils in a secondary 
course in agriculture and in home economics, and if 1000 want to 
go forward with a collegiate agricultural course, provide for that 
number in the state agricultural college. With such a system of 
education we would not only prepare practically all of the people 
who are to become farmers and farm home makers, but we would 
prepare in these agricultural high schools, teachers for the consoli- 
dated rural schools, so that the principal of each one of these 
schools would be trained to teach agriculture and an assistant would 
be qualified to teach home economics, and we would have in the 
country, as we have today in the city, a system from which the 
teachers could come in the regular way to the lower courses from 
the higher. Normal schools would be needed to give some addi- 
tional training in methods of teaching, as they now give addi- 
tional preparation to teachers for our city schools. 

The national Congress started this separate system of country 
life education by giving to each state in 1862 a grant of public lands 
for use in establishing an agricultural college, as earlier it started 
the system of city life education by making to each state a dona- 
tion toward establishing a state university and thus inaugurating, 
or forcing the establishment of a system of institutions at the 
head of state educational courses, which have nearly all been 
bent toward city life. The national Congress later, in 1887, by 
a substantial grant of money, induced each state to establish a 
state experiment station. As the states were led into starting these 
institutions, and as many cities have been led by the Legisla- 
ture in their respective states through grants of money to build 
up splendid city high schools, so cities can be further led to 
build up a system of education in mechanics arts and home 
economics, and the states can lead in a plan of building up agri- 
cultural high schools and through state aid can induce localities 
to change from the little rural schools to the consolidated school 
to which the pupils shall be hauled by team. Educating those who 



112 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

are to farm, to carry on city industries and to conduct the homes 
of the people, is coming up in a new way. Industrial education 
is demanding a place beside the three R's, The plans are to be 
devised, a system to be financed, teachers to be prepared, the body 
of knowledge to be rounded out and pedagogic methods to be 
wrought out. Technical education which long ago put theology 
and law and teaching on a basis of great advantage, offers to do 
the same for these three great industrial vocations. 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE II3 

WAYS AND MEANS OF FITTING EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE INTO 
THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM 

BY JOHN R. KIRK, PRESIDENT OF FIRST DISTRICT NORMAL SCHOOL, 

KIRKSVILLE MO. 

When this subject was assigned to your present speaker it was 
suggested that he show how to introduce agricuhure into the cur- 
riculum 'Svith benefit to the school and no injury to the curriculum." 
The suggestion seems natural. It should doubtless -occur to any 
alert and practical man. The speaker however was inclined to ask, 
" How can the large healthy foot of an average man be fitted 
into a narrow shoe with benefit to the man and no injury to the 
shoe ;" or " How can the full round head of a large brained child 
be fitted into -a small stiff hat with benefit to the child and no 
injury to the hat?" The further thought occurs that feet and 
brains are essential parts of an organic whole while shoes and hats 
are useful conventionalities which ought to be so made as to be 
adapted to feet and brains. 

For a decade or more we have been enriching the curriculum. 
Some are worried because of our extravagant use of fertilizers; 
but we shall keep on enriching and reorganizing the curriculum. 
Some good people would center all our energies on the old ques- 
tion of fundamentals. But what is fundamental and what is second- 
ary and subordinate? We shall see. 

A few years ago the colleges and high schools had no chairs of 
English. Then we exemplified our primitive conceptions b}^ 
using the clumsy phrases " supplementary reading " and " liter- 
ature in the grades." Reading was largely a mechanical process. 
At best it was said to be acquiring through mechanisms the thoughts 
of others. Now we know better; we see more clearly. Prior to 
reading we master certain conventionalities through charts and 
other facilities. By practice, the use of the conventionalities is 
passed over into the automatic. Reading has become thinking. It 
always was thinking. It is the personal interpretation, appreciation 
and assimilation of literature. It is not getting the thought of 
the author. Reading, hearing and observing mean that we are 
having thoughts of our own, aroused in our consciousness through 
external stimuli, visible, audible and tangible things of the earth. 
Look back a few 3"ears, How we did worry about overloading 
the curriculum with literature, vocal music, art, manual training, 
domestic science, gymnasium work ; and how many of us thought 
the curriculum would be irreparably injured. But we now have 



114 4315 UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 3O 

all these things in the curriculum. They are, to say the least, as 
essential as those mechanisms, the 3 R's, so erroneously looked 
upon as the fundamentals ; and the curriculum still survives. 

But now another new study commands our attention. It is 
conceded that all children ought to know more about nature and 
natural forces than the curriculum now provides for. To meet 
this want we now attempt to introduce the essentials of agriculture 
into the curriculum. 

We are obliged to recast some definitions. We have long en- 
dured unprofitable contention over two alleged phases of school 
education, i. e. education for culture and education for utility, the 
classics being supposedly for culture; the sciences and some other 
subjects, for utility. We now see that the classics are as much for 
utility as they are for culture and that the sciences are as much 
for culture as the}^ are for utility, that every legitimate subject 
of study is for both utility and culture. Education in agriculture 
is an essential utility because it is the only means of furnishing 
adequate conceptions of the fundamental occupation of mankind 
upon which all other occupations now depend and forever must 
depend ; but education in agriculture is also a basis of true culture 
and refinement, as illustrated in some of its earliest fruitages which 
we recognize in the adornment of homes and schools, through 
improved lawns, shade trees, walks, driveways, gardens and 
flowers. These things open the avenues to consciousness and 
reveal to us the beauty world which lies about us. Agriculture 
in the public schools has a threefold value — esthetic, educational, 
utilitarian. All these values are discovered and appreciated through 
the many exercises actually performed by the students themselves. 
The speaker wishes he could take you some December day to the 
assembly room of a large normal school or normal college which 
has agricultural laboratories and a school garden. As students 
and visitors assemble daily at lo a. m. to sing songs, hear an- 
nouncements, say good morning, shake hands and go again to 
their several classrooms, a common uplift is felt by the whole mass 
of men and women as the eyes are opened to half a dozen beauti- 
ful jardinieres loaded with perfume-bearing flowers; but the flowers 
are not bought at a greenhouse. The students know where the 
flowers come from and how the flowers grow. Among the students 
are those who, directed by scholarly instructors, sowed the seeds 
or potted the flower-bearing bulbs, watched and tended the plants 
from germination to the flowering stage and through weeks and 
months of study, observation and care, grew familiar with the 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE II5 

relation existing, between seeds, soil, sunshine, moisture etc. on 
the one hand, and these flowers, the admiration of all, on the 
other. 

How introduce agriculture into the curriculum ? A practical 
statesman well known to all of you once said the way to resume 
was to resume. So some of us in the middle West introduce agri- 
culture into the curriculum with benefit to the school and without 
injury to the curriculum by simply making the introduction. We 
just place agriculture in the curriculum. We give it a fair share 
of time, equipment, labor and thought. We are unable to discover 
any resulting retardation in any other subject. We notice that the 
children are more observant, more alert. They see more things. 
They have more conceptions of realities. They have an enlarged 
vocabulary. We modify the treatment of geography and com- 
bine agriculture with it. We treat literature and agriculture in 
the same way. Literature furnishes children more food for thought 
and a better variety of thought illustrations. Agriculture furnishes 
the children more food for thought and a larger variety of concrete 
material for all purposes. 

In lieu of one school reader filled with fragments of literature, 
all of the best schools have introduced an abundance of undis- 
sected and undamaged masterpieces. We have quit using that 
cumbersome evidence of ignorance, the phrase " supplementary 
reading." We have learned much by experience. We therefore 
seek to avoid introducing agriculture into the curriculum for ex- 
ploitation by people whose knowledge is merely fragmentary. 
Children can learn literature fairly well by reading it if the teacher 
be ever so ignorant. Not so with agriculture. Not so with 
nature study which is commonly a misnomer and too often means 
reading things about nature and repeating statements about nature 
without studying anything that is natural and without observing 
scientific modes of procedure. Firs tof all then, a' supply of teachers 
must be educated in agriculture. I think our higher institutions 
ought to furnish the means of doing this. All universities, all 
normal schools and most of the large colleges ought to contribute 
something. 

The most valuable investigation, discovery and thought in agri- 
culture, as in other subjects, is carried on in the imiversities, but 
the universities as now organized can contribute comparatively 
little towards introducing agriculture into the curriculum. They 
reach the schools only in spots. The institutions that educate and 
train the rank and file of public school teachers are the ones 
best adapted to leadership in the introduction of agriculture. 



Il6 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

The normal schools can do this great work just as they are 
able to do the larger part of the work of educating teachers to 
organize and conduct libraries. The full fledged up-to-date nor- 
mal school now gives courses in library work which require as 
much labor in preparation as is required in the preparation for 
science or language, or any other subject; likewise the normal 
schools are to do the larger part of preparing teachers of agricul- 
ture for the public schools. The university and the experiment 
station carry on the investigation. Theirs is chiefly the field of 
research. They can prepare a few teachers who will assist in the 
introduction of agriculture into the public schools. Some of the 
well equipped colleges will pretty soon be offering courses in 
library work. Gradually they will secure laboratories and give 
adequate instruction in agriculture. They have the alternative of 
doing this or taking a side track while the car of education ad- 
vances. Some of the colleges now offering courses in agriculture, 
are lacking in equipment and library facilities. They therefore 
rely too much upon textbooks and can not provide reliable teachers 
of agriculture. 

The high grade normal school furnishes teachers for all public 
schools, high schools, elementary schools and kindergartens. The 
best normal schools or normal colleges of the middle West offer 
academic courses covering all that the high school gives and all 
that the college can give. The typical high school graduate has 
little more than the child's view of subject-matter. To take him 
into the normal school and give him a few shallow dips into 
botany or agriculture or any other science and to give him, along 
with these, large and unbroken doses of pedagogy or methods, is to 
live and labor in the shallows. 

The ordinary view of education is superficial. It is to the 
effect that partially educated people can be filled with such pre- 
scriptions, recipes and devices as a typical normal school in static 
condition can give and then intrusted with the work of instruction 
in elementary schools, while the secondary teachers must have both 
high school and college education not necessarily supplemented by 
professional training. This vicious and deplorable conception is 
far too common. The high grade normal school of the middle 
West guarantees that its graduates have that knowledge and that 
viewpoint of academic subjects which college graduates are sup- 
posed to have. It furnishes also adequate conceptions and ex- 
periences in pedagogics and then sends out strong personalities 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE II 7 

who are independent of prescriptions, recipes and devices and who 
construct ways and methods of their own because they have large 
information and minds regulated by diversified experiences. Such 
normal schools are based on the idea that the third grade child 
and the seventh grade child need as scholarly teachers as the 
high school child. 

The school which the speaker represents is typical of one 
division of normal schools in the middle West. 47% of its stu- 
dents are men, full grown men. This school gives long and severe 
courses in several sciences. It allows no credit or recognition 
for any piecemeal work in science, no credit or recognition for 
merely reciting textbook lore about science. No student is 
authorized to study a science unless he takes it with the intention 
of pursuing it in the laboratories by laboratory methods for a 
period of not less than one year; but to educate a teacher in agri- 
culture in one year's time is pretty nearly impossible. We do not 
believe that all teachers should prepare to teach agriculture or 
that all teachers should study it. We do not believe that all teachers 
can learn to teach mathematics. There are a few rare people who 
can teach well subjects of nearly all kinds; but as a rule they do 
not have very extensive knowledge of any subject. Gradually we 
expect to secure consolidated rural schools in which a measure 
of specialization will carry each school to higher efficiency. In 
many places we are making beginnings. The normal schools of 
Missouri have laboratories and science teachers sufficient to give 
two years of laboratory work and study in physics, two in 
chemistry, two in zoology, one in botany, one in agriculture and 
one in physiography. We are not free from superficiality. We 
allow some students without previous training in any science to 
begin the study of agriculture and pursue it for nine months and 
then go away and undertake to teach the subject. They enter 
village and rural schools and do what they can. They desig- 
nate the subject, sometimes as agriculture, sometimes as nature 
study. No doubt they do much bungling but they probably make 
as good a start in this subject as their predecessors did in civics 
when that subject was new. In no event is their empiricism worse 
than that now exhibited both east and west in teaching human 
physiology in elementary schools. When the subject takes the 
name " nature study " it is sometimes discouragingly ill-organized 
and badly taught, a sort of hodgepodge. But our elementary and 
high school teachers of the middle West, at least, are now teaching 
literature pretty well. A dozen years ago most of them were 



Il8 43D UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 3O 

teaching literature in a very desultory way or not at all. We 
are therefore not without hope as to agriculture. 

In the Missouri normal schools our students of agriculture are 
encouraged to take the longer courses and to have at least biology 
and chemistry in connection with agriculture. If possible we pre- 
fer to give the biology and chemistry before the agriculture. 
When we can have as a basis the biologic and chemical courses 
through laboratory processes we can give the courses in the agricul- 
tural laboratory and the school garden to much better effect. It should 
be understood that when we speak of laboratories we mean those 
in which the students perform all sorts of individual experiments; 
but a laboratory which is not associated with a library and pretty 
good textbooks is an abnormality only a little better than a collec- 
tion of science textbooks without any laboratory. The typical farmer 
represents a laboratory without books and without good instruction. 
True science is through instruction and experiment. Through ex- 
periments the mind is prepared to appreciate the accumulated knowl- 
edge of the race. 

It might be asked, how do patrons view agricultural courses? 
In some communities they are not yet ready to permit the teaching 
of agriculture. Stoical incredulity is in places practically insuper- 
able, at least for the present; but the superficial hurried courses in 
farmers institutes, the bulletins from the universities and experi- 
ment stations, the agricultural journals and endless discussions, all 
contribute to the making of sentiment. I think a majority of the 
schools, academies and colleges offering instruction in agriculture 
are yet giving the instruction in a rather superficial way. Bailey's 
Agriculture and other hastily written books are commonly used. 
Much of worthless memoriter work is done ; but sentiment is im- 
proving. It is probable that the people will become anxious for 
proper instruction faster than schools and colleges can prepare 
teachers to give the instruction. 

I think it is not irrelevant, in passing, to ask how we first taught 
physics and other sciences. In New York you may have begun 
by rational laboratory methods but I am not so informed. In the 
middle West we began by learning things from books. When the 
speaker had studied Tenney's Zoology about six months he could 
pass a far better examination in zoology than he has been able to 
pass at any later time. 

There is a pretty general misconception as to the real purpose 
of education in agriculture. The heading of this paper does not 
serve to make our purposes any clearer. A market gardener recently 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE II9 

drove past the school garden of a Missouri normal school. He 
saw the science teacher working with some children in the garden. 
He said to me : " That teacher of yours don't know nothin' about 
agriculture. She ain't a doin' no good for herself nor anybody else 
workin' in that little patch with her school kids. She couldn't 
get two crops from one patch o' ground like I do." 

However that teacher of agriculture had just given a group of 
farmers a practical lesson in clover raising and rotation of crops 
which they acknowledged to be worth hundreds of dollars to them ; 
and yet our instruction in agriculture and our laboratories and 
school garden are not altogether for strictly practical purposes as 
the market gardener and the farmer would expect. 

The course in agriculture is chiefly for education. It is to open 
the avenues to the soul so that external stimuli of a thousand varie- 
ties may reach the soul. Shakspere, to illustrate, had no school 
education in agriculture. His father could neither read nor write, 
but the external stimuli, the vast variety of odors, colors, forms and 
sounds, found avenues to his consciousness. He thought more than 
other men and wrote better than other men because Stratford-on- 
Avon and Warwick and Kenil worth and the dark forest and all 
that beautiful country found avenues to his consciousness in ten 
thousand ways, and he spoke of things as they spoke to him. So 
we, through the endless agencies of an agricultural course, seek to 
open the avenues to the consciousness of the children and give them 
the power of observation, i. e. of seeing things in their minds after 
physical impression has been made upon the eye or the ear or other 
senses. Observing is thinking. 

We give children experiments to perform in the laboratory and 
in the school garden. We teach them to make observations and 
to do things. We give opportunity for reading, cogitation and 
reflection. We stimulate their constructive ingenuity. We make 
of them doers of things and builders of things. We do not fill them 
with rules and prescriptions for doing certain things in certain 
ways. We are not teaching recipes for sowing radishes or planting 
fruit trees. Rules and recipes are at best only incidental to our 
purpose. We are not expecting to make the children imitators in 
gardening and farming any more than we make of them imitators 
in composition, in letter-writing, in number work or other studies. 
But we are undertaking to make them intelligently familiar with the 
big round world that they live on. We see agriculture and geography 
as necessary and connected parts of one fundamental subject. 

What have we to work with? Full grown men and women, 25 



120 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

years of age, typical students of the normal school, and the 6 to i6 
year old children in the practice school work with nearly the same 
materials. The practice school typifies a public school and is 
equipped as a public school should be equipped. Our laboratories 
are ample in size and well supplied with microscopes, herbarium 
cases, bookcases, reference books, dictionaries, maps, charts, ordi- 
nary biologic tools, cutting tables, milk testers, soil tubes, test tubes, 
hoes, rakes, hatchets, knives etc. These are in use all the year round. 
The garden of course is in use only in spring, summer and fall. 

Some of the subjects taught by instruction and by experimenta- 
tion are as follows : difference between types of soils and kinds 
of plants ; the importance of drainage ; methods of tillage for con- 
serving soil moisture and eft'ecting soil ventilation; keeping plant 
foods in the soil by cover crops and by preventing exhaustion of 
food elements through rotation of crops; principles of feeding; 
how to care for milk and test its qualities ; propagation of plants 
by seeds and by buds ; grafting and transplanting ; the principles 
and effects of pruning for fruit, for shade and for ornamental pur- 
poses ; discrimination between the insect friends and the insect 
enemies of plants ; the making and use of insecticides ; elementary 
landscape gardening whereby homes, school grounds and other 
premises are transformed and beautified. As concrete illustrations 
I may mention the following: Monday, June 26, at 10 a. m., I 
started from my office to the school garden ; passing the agricultural 
laboratories I met a dozen fourth grade children coming in from 
the garden. These children were tripping along with rakes, hoes 
etc. each one carrying a large bunch of sweet peas which had just 
been gathered at the close of a garden exercise. Some children of 
another class were still in the garden. One girl was gathering 
nasturtiums from a bed which she herself had planted and tended. 
I noticed on the right a long row of sweet pea vines about four 
feet high, loaded with flowers, and in the garden at large I could 
readily notice plants and flowers representing all the vegetation 
growing in the neighboring farms, gardens and orchards. In one 
part of the garden are 32 individual gardens. These individual 
gardens are only a few feet each way in extent. In individual gar- 
den no. I, I noticed: (i) onions, (2) beets, (3) cabbages, (4) pota- 
toes, (5) corn, (6) beans, (7) a radish bed, the radishes having 
been matured and gathered and the ground replanted in beans, 
(8) an onion bed, the onions having been matured and gathered, 
excepting one which was left for seed. No two of the individual 
gardens were exactly alike. I found several individual gardens that 



ig05] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE 121 

were both flower gardens and vegetable gardens. One of them 
contained the following: (i) nasturtiums in bloom, (2) phlox in 
bloom, (3) California poppies, (4) zinnia, (5) aster, (6) Cosmos, 
(7) Chinese pink, (8) gladiolus, (9) onions, (10) beets, (11) rad- 
ishes, (12) a lettuce bed, (13) tomato vines beginning to bear. 
The children work in this garden from one to three periods a week, 
This follows instruction in a classroom or lecture room and experi- 
ments in the laboratories. But time permits the mention of only 
these few items as illustrations. 

By use of agriculture we hope not only to further enrich the 
curriculum but to strengthen it as a whole and bring its elements 
into a unity. 

Through rational use of all elemental subjects we hope to appeal 
to the apperception masses in the minds of all children and bring 
more of the curriculum within the comprehension of the children. 

We do not seek to make any work easier but to make all work 
more enjoyable. We do not seek or hope to teach all things to all 
children. We do not desire to produce greater homogeneity but 
rather to bring about greater heterogeneity through that wholesome 
differentiation which comes from offering food for all types of 
mind. 

The child is born a worker. He loves work till school and home 
make him an idler. We here offer another powerful stimulus to 
work, invigorating work that makes play worth playing and life 
worth living. 

DISCUSSION 

PROF. L. H. BAILEY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
Stenographer's abstract 

I have jotted down, as these gentlemen were speaking, some oi 
the important points which I wish to mention without direct com- 
ment and then possibly to make a few comments of my own. 

It seems to me that we are most fortunate to have these three 
strong papers. They represent the forward spirit of the great 
interior West. They are full of energy, effort and hope. They warn 
us. They also represent three distinct points of view, but all are 
complementary and look towards better teaching for our great rural 
population. 

Professor Henry has dwelt upon the commercial position of agri- 
culture and coimtry life ; the great problem of transportation ; the 
emigration of our people from the East to the West ; taxation ; and 



122 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

other large economic questions. He has presented some remarkable 
and telling examples of what Denmark is doing in respect to agricul- 
tural training. If he had time I presume he would have said some- 
thing about the remarkable organization of agricultural and allied 
institutions in Ireland as represented in the work of Horace Plunkett. 
Scientific agriculture is scarcely yet begun. I judge from Professor 
Henry's views that we have been simply exploiting the soil. Scien- 
tific agriculture does not develop until such time as new lands are 
not to be taken up. He spoke of the great advantage of cooperation 
in agriculture, also of the very interesting experiments now being 
made by the railroads in the middle West, especially in the corn 
belt states, of the endeavor to develop the agricultural institutions 
in these states, and of the fact that the railroads of the West 
are chiefly interested in developing their contiguous territory. 

It may interest you to know that 85% of the taxes of New York 
State are paid by Greater New York and Erie county and that the 
rural interior of New York State is yet undeveloped. He also com- 
pared the phenomenal development of western agriculture with the 
decline (as shown by the census reports) of New York agriculture. 
The gist of this able address is an appeal to the people of New York 
to realize their position and to set about it at once to regenerate 
the State and hold the place that by natural advantage belongs to it. 
This can be done only by a liberal support of education in the 
interest of agriculture. 

Professor Hays took a somewhat different point of view; spoke 
more directly of the secondary schools ; emphasized the fact that 
the agricultural population is coming now to be somewhat settled ; 
that the custom of leasing farms is becoming more general than 
in the past. You can not send the city problem to the country to 
be worked out there. The city must work out its own problems, even 
as the country must work out its problems, each, of course, aiding 
the other. He also placed great emphasis upon the idea that the 
home should receive more attention ; spoke of agricultural and high 
school consolidation; also, spoke of the importance of having 
more and larger plans for agriculture and for country life. He 
alluded to the plans for the army and navy as illustrating great plans. 
Why should we not have great plans for agriculture? I was 
especially struck with his phrase " education for country life." 
This connotes that our present education is chiefly for city life. His 
paper challenges all our customary points of view. 

The last paper was that of a schoolman who is working out 
this rural problem for himself in a practical and direct way and 



1905] EDUCATIOiSr FOR AGRICULTURE 12$ 

at the outset challenging the curriculum; makes education vital 
rather than verbal, and challenges also the division of education 
into two great categories of culture and utility. This new work 
is for both culture and utility. I was impressed with his illustration 
of the plants which were on the platform in his school, that they 
were not purchased but that they were grown by the pupils them- 
selves and therefore represented the result of educational effort. 
I was impressed also with the means by which he introduced agri- 
culture; that is, he introduced it. In introducing agriculture into 
the schools the teacher must know the subject-matter. He also said 
that in the West there is no schism. They do not rely too much 
on textbooks; mentioned the fact that some schools are still back- 
ward and are using Bailey's Principles of Agriculture. He spoke 
also of the normal schools of the West and said that the educa- 
tion is not that of a physician dispensing pedagogic capsules ; that 
there is coming into the schools of the middle West a new point 
of view in regard to subject-matter, but that he does not expect 
perfection at once. Other subjects have been put in pedagogic 
form through a long series of years ; constituents are rising to sup- 
port this education and I infer therefrom that the education is 
satisfying the constituents. Schools must be well supplied with 
materials and equipment and the curriculum must be organized 
to meet growing conditions. In these schools there is a laboratory, 
which is the school garden, maintained not primarily for teaching 
gardening but for developing power. I think the general thesis 
of his paper is that agricultural work results in the development 
of individuality in the pupil. 

There are some few comments which I wish to make on the 
discussion which you have already heard. The need of intro- 
ducing agriculture is apparent. The test of education is literacy. 
This I think is a wrong test. The real test of education is efficiency, 
and measured by this test one third of our people are uneducated. 

One reason why farmers follow the ways of their fathers is that 
they have no other ways presented to them in the schools. The 
schools have no intelligent relations with the conditions under which 
these persons live and only something from the colleges filters out 
to the mass of the people. The colleges are training a few and 
teaching them distinctively agricultural science and also good agri- 
cultural practice, but they can not do the entire work. There is an 
enormous demand for extension work. This shows the insufficiency 
of the schools to do the work by themselves. 



124 43° UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

We need a better system of agriculture in New York State. 
About 35% of all the persons in this country are on farms. In 
New York we have only about one person in seven or eight on the 
farms, which means that we have not an agricultural sentiment de- 
veloped in this State to the extent to which transportation and busi- 
ness sentiments are developed. It is more difficult therefore to 
establish agricultural education in the old East than it is in the new 
West. Probably more than one third of the area of New York 
State is really undeveloped. There is included in this a large body 
of woodland, a large part of which is unproductive. The amount 
of land that we till is relatively small. The average revenue per 
acre is fairly high in New York State, but it might be much higher. 

It was once my privilege to see commencement exercises in 
Tuskegee Institute. The young men had no set speeches to make. 
The young men and the young women told us what they had done 
and learned in the school. One of them spoke of the advantage of 
rotation in farming. He had a large tray, perhaps lo feet square, 
representing a farm, with a certain number of acres in each of 
several squares or boxes, one box representing corn, another cotton, 
another cowpeas etc. ; and according to the rotation he would change 
the boxes. In the boxes he had plants which he had raised himself 
in order to illustrate to his hearers the importance of rotation and 
some of the cardinal principles involved. I was ashamed of some 
of the commencements in northern colleges and universities with 
their discussions of abstract, irrelevant and academic questions. 

Agriculture represents a large line of economic and social ques- 
tions. It presents an unorganized and unsyndicated effort as distin- 
guished from the organized and syndicated effort of the cities. If 
the farmer opposes the manufacturer, he opposes immense capital. 
If he hires outside of farm labor, he hires organized labor. The 
farmer is confronted on both sides by fixed earnings and he himself 
takes what may be left from the result of his toil. 

Agriculture is in a state of arrested development. The subject 
must be considered in our schools. It is the only occupation which 
completely conserves the autonomy of the individual and practi- 
cally the only one which is really a nature occupation. 

We often think that American agriculture is very efficient. 
We have great wealth, new soil, and an energetic people; but as 
measured by the productiveness of individual acres we are not the 
leading agricultural people. Other peoples have attached some 
agricultural problems better than we. There is a survey going 
on in Prussia. It has been under way for a number of years and 



1905] EDUCATION FOR AGRICULTURE 1 25 

I suppose will be continued for many years to come. I shall read 
a brief sketch of it: 

In combination, that is, using geological and soil maps and 
records of production, there is a basis for the economic valuation 
of soils or lands for purposes of taxation, and this feature has been 
thoroughly developed in Prussia where the results are now being 
issued in a series of extremely valuable detailed maps. This how- 
ever has required the cooperation of farmers. For its work the 
Prussian Commission consisted of 2414 persons; 2050 of these 
were farmers, the others government officials. The system involved, 
in addition to complete classification of soils, the selection of model 
or standard areas in each class and district as bases for future com- 
parisons. The main general problem was to determine the average 
net yield of each farm or area, and to coordinate this material and 
similar areas as a basis for further classification. Eight classes of 
soils with from one to seven types in each were recognized with a 
total of 30 types. The value of this survey is only now beginning to 
be recognized by the more advanced farmers and serves as a basis 
of comparison of methods and results in similar areas and under 
similar conditions upon which to base a system of taxation for social 
and economic betterment. 

This is a type of work that we have not yet undertaken. 

In one part of New York, the rate of taxation per dollar for rural 
school moneys, for the villages, is about lo^ mills ; for the rural 
schools, 4^/^ mills. Is there any reason why the farmer should not 
pay as high a rate on the dollar for school purposes as the town 
man? Is there any reason why the State should maintain agricul- 
tural education when it does not maintain other kinds of special 
education? The government has long supported agricultural edu- 
cation of college grade. This is an admission that the farmer suf- 
fers an undue commercial disadvantage in the community, and 
unconsciously the commonwealth and the government try to make 
it up to him in this way. 

The overcrowding of schools has been mentioned as a very 
serious handicap. If you will read the reports of the committee 
of the National Education Association on industrial education you 
will find this question discussed from many points of view. In the 
first place, the inefficiency of rural schools is not due to too many 
subjects, but to other causes. Teachers do not receive pay enough. 
Schools are not properly equipped. Nobody is specifically at fault. 
It is a case of arrested development.- The common schools are the 
product of the high schools. This seems to be a reversal of the 
process of evolution, but not really so, because these higher schools 
develop leadership and leaders. 



126 43 UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [jUNE 30 

In some way the farmer must be reached. We have 
for a generation been attempting it and we shall not remit our 
efforts in that direction, because the economic and com- 
mercial position of the farm is fundamental to our institutions. ,We 
must begin to consider the farm home as one of the important 
units in our national welfare. The farm home is coordinate with 
the farm itself. We have been giving our efforts to increasing the 
productiveness of the land. We must now give our efforts also 
to developing higher ideals and better efficiency in the home. I am 
not speaking merely of domestic science, as that term is popularly 
understood, but also of the relation of the farm home to childhood, 
education, schools, the church, to society. I like to call this sub- 
ject home economics. We must introduce these subjects into some 
of our schools. They will come gradually, and we shall make mis- 
takes as we made them in all other kinds of education. If we are to 
lead all the people we must have a greater variety of subjects ; we 
must have subjects that appeal to the people and that promise to 
better their lives. These subjects must be made a means of training 
m scholarship at the same time that they train to commercial and 
industrial efficiency. But this whole matter is beyond the need of 
special pleading. That time has gone by. It is now a question of 
method. As Professor Kirk has said, the way to introduce agricul- 
ture into the schools is to introduce it. 

Chairman Beach — I am sure I express the general sentiment of 
the convocation that we are under great obligations to the speakers 
who have entertained and instructed us. We are under a debt of 
gratitude to them that no words or resolution can express. We are 
under obligations, too, to the Convocation Council who planned 
so wisely the proceedings and the program on this occasion. I am 
sure you will agree with me in saying that Convocation this year 
has been very instructive and interesting and a success, and I now 
declare the 43d Convocation of the University of the State of New 
York closed. 



INDEX 



Agricultural education, by W. A. 
Henry, 90-105; by W. M. Hays, 
106-12; by L. H. Bailey, 121-26; 
academic, 9-1 1; ways and means 
of fitting into the school curriculum , 
by John R. Kirk, 1 13-21 

Armstrong, Prof., quoted, 59-60 

Bailey, L. H., on agricultural educa- 
tion, 121-26 

Beach, Daniel, address, 6-1 1; closing 
remarks, 126 

Bristol, George P., on consolidation 
of state organizations, 50 

Bruce, William, cited, 100 

Business education, see Commercial 
education 

Business men, relation to teachers, 
37-44, 47-48 

Certified public accountants, 8 

Chancellor's address, 6-1 1 

China, trade with, 81, 84, 85-86 

Citizen, ideal, 42 

Commerce, education for, 68-89; in 

the Far East, 79-89 
Commercial education, problem of, 

paper by Edmund J. James, 11-37 
Commercial schools, 7-8 
Consolidation of state organizations, 

report of committee on, 50 

Denmark, agriculture in, 96-101 
Draper, Andrew S., quoted, 12 

Education, cost of, 44 
Eliot, President, quoted, 68 
Engineering education, 9 

Hadley, Dr, quoted, 76, 77, 78 

Hays, Willet M., on agricultural edu- 
cation, 106—12 

Henry, Y/. A., Agricultural Educa- 
tion in America and its Import- 
ance to the Commonwealth and 
the Nation, 90-105 

Herrick, Cheesman A., on industrial 
education, 45-50 



Industrial education, 9, 51-67; from 
a layman's point of view, by 
Robert C. Ogden, 51-58; dis- 
cussion on how to introduce into 
courses of study, 59-67 

James, Edmund J., The Problem~of 
Commercial Education, 11-37 

Japan, trade with, 84-85 

Jenks, Jeremiah W., Education for 
Commerce in the Far East, 79-89 

King, Joseph, on education, 67 
Kirk, John R., Ways and Means of 
Fitting Education for Agriculture 
into the School Curriculum, 1 13-21 

Mclver, Charles D., The Business 

Man and the Teacher, 37-44 
Mill, John Stuart, quoted, 11 

Ogden, Robert C, Industrial Educa- 
tion from a Layman's Point of 
View, 51-58 

Peabody, George; quoted, 44 
Philippine Islands, trade with, 82-84 
Professional education, basis of, 13 

Russell, James E., on how to fit 
industrial training into our course 
of study, 59-67 

Sessions, summary of, 4-5 

Taxation, not a necessary evil, 43 
Teachers, relation to business men, 

37-44, 47-48; salaries, 41 
Technical schools, function, 28 
Trades, education for, see Industrial 

education 

Vanderlip, Frank A., A New College 

Degree, 68-78 
Wealth, increase of, 14,16 



Published monthly by the 

New York State Education Department 



BULLETIN 394 



FEBRUARY IQoy 



Department BiiUeti 

No. 4 
44th UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 

OF THE 

STATE OF NEW YORK, OCTOBER 25-27, 

1906 



PAGE 

Plan of Convocation 3 

Summary of sessions 4 

Appointments 6 

Prayer: Rt. Rev. W. C. Doane. 7 
Chancellor's address: Vice Chan- 
cellor St Clair McKELVifAY. . . 7 
A National View of Education: 

E. E. Brown lo 

The State and its Colleges: G, E. 

Merrill > i8 

Academic Examinations and Ac- 
ademic Funds: A. S. Draper. 34 

Necrology: C. W. Bardeen 51 

The Normal School: G. W. Haw- 
kins . 55 




PAGE 

Problems of Educational Admin- 
istration: N. M. Butler 68 

Cooperative Forces in Education: 
M. J. Lavelle 76 

The Commercial Program in Sec- 
ondary Education: J. J. Shep- 
PARD 86 

The Relation of Industrial Exer- 
cises to Other Educational Fac- 
tors: C. D. Larkins 94 

High School Organization and 
the Individual Student: M. J. 
Fletcher 102 

Closing remarks 112 

Index 115 



39om-N6-3ooo (7-1006) 



ALBANY 

NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 
1907 



QiMeetftdM^ 



■■■ .- y 

STATE OF NEW YORK ' /^^-^ 

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT y 

Regents of the University 
With years when terms expire '"'- 

1913 Whitelaw Reid M.A. LL.D. Chancellor - - - New York 

1 91 7 St Clair McKelway M.A. LL.D. Vice Chancellor Brooklyn 

1908 Daniel Beach Ph.D. LL.D. - - - - - - Watkins 

1914 Pliny T. Sexton LL.B. LL.D. Palmyra 

1912 T. Guilford Smith M.A. C.E. LL.D. - . . . Buffalo 

1 9 18 William Nottingham M.A. Ph.D. LL.D. - - - Syracuse 

1 9 10 Charles A. Gardiner Ph.D. L.H.D. LL.D. D.C.L. 'New York 

1915 Albert Vander Veer M.A. M.D. Ph.D. LL.D.- - Albany 

191 1 Edward Lauterbach M.A. LL.D. New York 

1909 Eugene A. Philbin LL.B. LL.D. - . . . . New York 

19 16 LuciAN L. Shedden LL.B. - Plattsburg 

Commissioner of Education 

Andrew S. Draper LL.B. LL.D. >. w 

Assistant Commissioners 

Howard J. Rogers M.A. LL.D. First Assistant 
Bdward J. Goodwin Lit.D. L.H.D. Second Assistant 
A-ugustus S. Downing M.A. Pd.D. LL.D. Third Assistant 

Secretary to the Commissioner 

Harlan H. Horner B.A. 

Director of State Library 

Edwin H. Anderson M.A. 

Director of Science and State Museum 

John M. Clarke Ph.D. LL.D, 

^ Chiefs of Divisions 

Accounts, William Mason 

Attendance, James D. Sullivan 

Educational Extension, William R. Eastman M.A. B.L.S. 

Examinations, Charles F. Wheelock B.S. LL.D. 

Inspections, Frank H. Wood M.A. 

Law, Thomas E. Finegan M.A. 

School Libraries, Charles E. Fitch L.H.D. 

Statistics, Hiram C. Case 

Visual Instruction, DeLancey M. Ellis 



New York State Education Department 



Department Bulletin 

No. 4 
44th UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 

OF THE 

STATE OF NEW YORK, OCTOBER 25-27, 1906 



PLAN OF THE CONVOCATION OF 1906 

In the plan of the University Convocation for igo6 it was de- 
termined to follow the precedent successfully cstablishtd in 1905, 
and give the entire time of the meeting" to the consideration of one 
general subject. This subject for 1906 related to The Practical 
Administration of School Affairs in this State. There have been 
two full school years since the unification law went into effect, and 
the reorganization then made of the educational machinery of the 
State has been given a fair practical test. There are many important 
subjects to be considered m the light of this experience, and a 
frank discussion of policies and methods with the view of correcting 
existing defects was invited. 

It was desired that the formal papers be followed by thorough 
discussion. Many of the leading educators of the State w^ere asked 
to participate, but there was no preferment on the program and all 
were invited to give their aid, in the hope of securing practical 
suggestions for the use of the Department and of the schools and 
colleges. 

The attendance at the Convocation was by far the largest o£ 
recent years and amply justified the decision of the Regents to> 
change the time of meeting to the autumn. The interest was greater^ 
the members were not wearied by the pressure of the closing duties 
of a school year, no one was hurrying to a vacation, and the weather 
was ideal. The total number registered at the meeting was 384,. 
and the number of trunk line certificates issued was 134. At every 
session the Senate chamber was crowded, the attendance of teachers 
residing within a radius of 25 miles being large, and the papers 
and discussions were of a remarkably high degree of excellence. 
The plan of holding the Convocation during the last week of October 
will be continued. 



4 ZJ4TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 

SUMMARY OF SESSIONS 
Thursday afternoon, October 25 

3 p. m. Informal gathering at headquarters (The Ten Eyck) 

4 p. m. Executive session of Convocation council at the Depart- 
ment of Education 

Thursday evening, October 25, Senate Chamber 

7,30 p. m. Registration 

8 p. m. Announcements 

Dean James E. Russell, for Convocation council 
Prayer 

Rt. Rev. William Croswell Doane D.D., Bishop of Albany 
8.15 p. m. Chancellor's address 

Regent St Clair McKelway M.A. L.H.D. LL.D. D.C.L. Vice 
Chancellor 
Address: A National View of Education 

Hon, Elmer E. Brown Ph.D., United States Commissioner of 

Education 
Informal reception in the State Library at close of addresses 
All members of the convocation and guests were cordially invited 
to meet the Regents of the University and the Commissioner of 
Education. 

Friday morning, October 26, Senate chamber 

9 a. m. Registration 

9.30 a. m. Announcements 

Dean James E. Russell, for Convocation council. 
Address: The State and its Colleges: What They can do for 
Each Other 
George E. Merrill LL.D., President of Colgate University 
Address: Academic Examinations and Academic Funds 

Hon. Andrew S. Draper LL.B. LL.D., Commissioner of 
Education 
Discussion of same topic 
11.30 a. m. 
Informal discussion in Senate library : Schoolroom Decoration 
Led by W. R. Eastman, Chief, Division of Educational Exten- 
sion 



SUMMARY OF SESSIONS 5 

Friday afternoon, October 26, Senate chamber, 3 p, m. 

Report of committee on necrology 

Report of committee on nominations 

Address : The Normal School : its Mission and its Handicap 

George K. Hawkins M.A. D.Sc, Principal of the Plattsbiirg 
Normal School 
Address : Problems of Educational Administration 

Nicholas Murray Butler LL. D., President of Columbia 
University 
Address : Cooperative Forces in Education 

Rt. Rev. Monsignor M. J. Lavelle V.G., New York 

Friday evening, October 26, 7.30 p. m. 

The members of the Convocation joined with the members of the 
Hudson River Schoolmasters Club in a dinner at the Hotel Ten 
Eyck. The entire membership of the Convocation was welcomed 
to the after-dinner speaking which began at 9.30 p. m. The principal 
speakers were Dr S. -Parks Cadman of Brooklyn, Pres. Nicholas 
Murray Butler of Columbia University and Prin. William L. Felter 
of the Brooklyn Girls High School. 

Saturday morning, October 27, Senate chamber, 9 a. m. 

Announcements 

Dean James E. Russell, for Convocation council 
Address : The Commercial Program in Secondary Education 
James J. Sheppard, Principal of the High School of Com- 
merce, New York city 
Address : The Relation of Industrial Exercises to other Educa- 
tional Factors 
Cpiarles D. Larkins, Principal of the Manual Training High 
School, New York city 
Address : High School Organization and the Individual Student 
Milton J. Fletcher, Principal of the Jamestown High School 
and President of the Associated Academic Principals of the 
State of New York 



44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 



APPOINTMENTS 



The Convocation council, acting as a committee on nominations, 
report the following recommendations to fill the vacancies on the 
various University councils for the year 1906-7. 

Convocation council 

Prof. W. H. Squires, Hamilton College, term to expire in 191 1 
Prin. John H. Denbigh, New York city, to fill the unexpired term 
of Prin. Howard Conant, removed from the State 

College council . 

Brother Edward, Manhattan College, New York city, term to 
expire in 191 1 

Academic council 

Sup't S. J. Slawson, Olean. N. Y., term to expire in 191 1 
Prin. W. H. Lynch, Amsterdam, N. Y., to fill the unexpired term 
of Prin. A. W. Abrams, resigned 

Library council 

W. H. Austen, Cornell University, term to expire in 191 1 

Medical council 

Dr R. J. Park, Buffalo University, term to expire in 191 1 

Dr Samuel W. Lambert, Columbia University, to fill vacancy — 

term to expire in 1908 

The report was unanimously approved and the Vice Chancellor 

stated that the recommendations would be submitted to the Board 

of Regents for action at their next meeting. 



1.. 



CHANCELLOR S ADDRESS 7 

ADDRESSES, PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS 

Senate chamber, Thursday evening, October 25 

Vice Chancellor St Clair McKelway presiding 

PRAYER 

RT. REV. WILLL\M CROSWELL DOANE D.D., BISHOP OF ALBANY 

O, God, Who art the Author of wisdom and counsel, and Who 
by Thy Holy Spirit doth guide and move the thoughts and intents 
of men, we beseech Thee to bless Thy servants gathered here to 
further the work of forming and training the character of the men 
and women to come. Fill their ,:iinds with the wisdom that comes 
from above ; make them diligent to acquire learning ; impress them 
with the dignity and responsibility and the exceeding great reward 
of those who are to De teachers, and give them the power to turn 
many to righteousness. 

We beseech Thee to give to the pupils in our schools the spirit 
of obedience and docility, that they may be fitted for their place in 
society and the church. Look with favor upon this commonwealth, 
and especially upon the Department of Education that it may be 
administered with the single purpose of making us better citizens 
and more faithful to Christ and Thee. For Jesus Christ's sake we 
ask it, amen. 

CHANCELLOR'S ADDRESS 

VICE CHANCELLOR ST CLAIR MCKELWAY 

My friends, the change in our time of meeting will be the first 
thought in your minds. The Convocation council made that change 
thoughtiully. That council comprises representatives of great edu- 
cational inierests in relation with the State. The change of date 
was reached deliberately. Our midsummer meetings, the memory 
of many of which is fragrant and inspiring, coincided with other 
educational occasions which made attendance upon Convocation dif- 
ficult, and which rendered the presence of not a few eminent edu- 
cators impossible. Our numbers even at midsummer were rarely 
small, but the difficulty many had in coming to us was sometimes 
extreme. 

The change of date is, of course, an experiment. The result of 
this meeting may vindicate the experiment, and we all hope it will. 
There are no vacations immediately confronting us. Between now 
and the national holiday, soon to occur, is enough time for us to 



8 441"^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2$ 

deliberate here and depart without a sense of haste to our places of 
abode. To be sure, an election of significant strenuosity is at 
hand, but the issues and the candidates to come to judgment at the 
polls are well known to the people and bear no relation whatever to 
the work in which we are engaged. Neither the conduct of the 
State Department of Education, nor the record of the Board of 
Regents, nor the condition of our school system, nor the organiza- 
tion of our State Department enters into any platforms or nomina- 
tions now challenging discussion and nearing decision at the hands 
of voters. We have no right to apprehend any consequences what- 
ever to our educational system from any result at the polls in this 
commonwealth in November next, and we certainly have no reason 
to suppose that any issues or candidates then to be passed on will 
engage our attention as a convocation during the present meeting. 

The reorganization and the consolidation of our State educational 
system can now be said to have enough history behind it to justify 
congratulations and confidence. Where there were two boards, 
there is now but one. Where there were two systems, there is now 
a consolidated system. Where there was conflict, there is now con- 
cord, and where there was friction, or war, is now peace. 

Advantages can be suggested larger than these. The State has 
unified its educational system. From the kindergarten all the way 
through the university the line is straight, plain and strong. The 
scheme which the parent has in view for the child from when it 
lisps in numbers to when, again gowned, it marches to graduation, 
is the scheme which the State has at last enacted. One might think 
that this simplicity and progressiveness would have been provided at 
the start. Such, however, was not the case. Education came to the 
people from the top to the foundation, from the summit to the plain. 
That was because the original scheme of education contemplated a 
chosen few, rather than the people as a whole. University educa- 
tion is a thousand years older than conimon school education. But 
common school education is now the chief solicitude, at least of all 
enlightened repuBlics, and the provision of it is the bulwark and the 
glory of the constitutions of all free nations. The first lien on all 
taxation is held by our common school system. That system is broad 
enough in many of our states to comprehend the education of the 
child from the beginning to the end of his scholastic life. I have 
no objection to the State of New York making its system as broad, 
as long and as thorough as that. I can conceive of no department 
of instruction, saving theology, which any ncAV state could not well 
take in charge, and to which any older state, such as New York, 
could not safely adjust its educational economy. 



]9o6] chancellor's address 9 

Some of this work of assumption and absorption by our own State 
must be left to the generations that will succeed our own. We can, 
however, wisely be more hospitable than hostile to the proposition. 
We may not expedite it, but we can anticipate it. We would not 
antagonize private foundations, but we can look forward to the pro- 
vision of State foundations as broad as those laid in younger com- 
monv/ealths and we can confidently expect not a few private founda- 
tions, of which the conductors are embarrassed and in debt, willingly 
to seek State absorption in the years to come. This would do no 
violence to specialism or to private initiative. The State is so strong 
that it can tax all private wealth at will and so " rich " that private 
wealth can provide nothing for its representatives or their children 
which the State can not itself provide for the people as a whole. 
The free school, the free academy, the free college, the latter in 
parts of our commonwealth, we already have. The free university, 
with a full complement of professional schools, younger states have 
and have long had, and this State will eventually have beyond doubt. 
We may not live to see it, but none of us can live long enough to 
prevent it and not a few of us, I hope, will live long enough heartily 
to welcome it. 

The trend of our State toward professional education is a surety 
and prophecy of this. We allow private institutions to prepare for 
us law students, but only by State examiners and by State courts 
can they be admitted to the bar. We allow private institutions to 
send up to us students in dentistry, in pharmacy, in accountancy, and 
what not. But only by examinations under State auspices can they 
be licensed for the practice of their callings. Students of medicine 
and surgery are similarly educated under private auspices or under 
chartered institutions allowed by the State, but the medical boards, 
before which they must finally appear, and by which alone they can 
be qualified to practise, are provided by State law through our State 
Board of Regents, as you all well know. All this final State action 
is a moral justification and a logical prophecy of State initiative in 
every one of these fields. 

When I first became a member of the Board of Regents, none of 
these powers and duties sustained any relation to that Board or that 
Board t® them. The progressive course which the State pursued 
brought all these professions under State control in the ulti- 
mate and in that fact is the warrant that the State will provide the 
power to ai¥ect these professions at the initiative. The State will 
be in no hurry. Time and gravitation will take care of the matter. 
Both can be trusted to assure their work and those of us who may 



JO 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [0C70RER 25 

indicate or justify our temperament and our conviction, whether by 
protest or by support, can neither quicken nor stay the forces which 
in events are as inherent and as indicative as character in the man or 
in the State. 

I think that our present State system of education which unifies 
forces, which simphties mechanism, which harmonizes interests and 
which articulates the Education Department with all the life of all 
the people and with all the aspirations of all the people, making that 
Department as democratic and as representative as the people are 
themselves, has been vindicated by the peaceful and progressive 
results which it has accomplished, or with which it has concurred, 
and will be so vindicated for as long as our government shall endure 
among men. 

A NATIONAL VIEW OE EDUCATION 

HON. ELMER ELLSWORTH EROWN PH.D., UNITED STATES COAIMISSIONER 

OF EDUCATION 

This country of ours, as you have been told over and over again, 
is welcoming every year great numbers of foreigners to its citizen- 
ship. It is sending out, as it were, to all the nations of the- earth, 
and inviting the peoples of the earth to become our people; and it is 
making over these peoples of the earth into Americans. 

It was Henry Ward Beecher who, in speaking of this great influx 
of foreigners, made the famous remark that " When a lion eats an 
ox, the ox becomes lion ; the lion does not become ox." He went on 
to say that we would make over these peoples of the earth into 
Americans — they will not make us into foreigners; and that the 
stomach in which we shall digest them is the American public school ! 

Do you know that some of the most interesting places in our great 
cities on the Atlantic seaboard that can be visited at the present 
time, are the places that serve as that kind of stomach for the 
digestion of the peoples of Europe? I had. a few months ago, the 
pleasure of visiting one of these institutions in the north end of 
Boston. On that trip I had the delightful companionship of George 
H. Martin, now Secretary of the Board of Education of Massachu- 
setts, and of Miss Arnold of Simmons College. As we went to look 
for one of those remote schools in the wilds of the north end of 
Boston, they told me various things about the Boston that is, in com- 
parison with the Boston that was. The friend of one of my friends 
remarked that she had ceased to be interested in those who came 



1906] A NATIONAL VIEW OF EDUCATION II 

over in the Mayflower and was now interested in those who came 
over last week in the steerage of the Scythia. We found those who 
came over last week and those who came over yesterday in the 
steerage of the Scythia or of some other of those great trans- 
Atlantic vessels, and we found them making over into American citi- 
zens. For me the whole process took on a new meaning. The edu- 
cation of our own ordinary boys and girls took on a new meaning 
when I saw education thus brought down to hardpan, as it were, 
in doing the very elemental business of the school. I wish I could 
tell you clearly the way it was done. We were in a school for girls, 
and \ve. were. taken into- a -room where a pleasant' faced teacher, her- 
self an immigrant of some years before but now a thorough Ameri- 
can citizen, had gathered around a table a number of those little 
girls who had just come over, and was trying to make them under- 
stand some things American. They were learning the American 
language and some of the most essential things that may be told in 
that language. They had the kitclien utensils which would be used 
by American housekeepers, and were learning their names and how 
to use them and how to talk about the use of them. They were 
learning to be clean, and that is an Americanism which was new to 
many of them. They were learning other Americanisms, such as 
" thank you," and " if you please." 

We went on from room to room and saw how these children were, 
little by Httle, picking up our language and being initiated into the 
mysteries of American life. This was one of the schools where they 
had introduced public baths, and we went to see that institution, the 
institution that makes clean Americans. I saw a class on its way to 
the baths and I saw that same class a little later on its way from 
the baths, and they had learned another Americanism which is rep- 
resented by the famous American label, " Before taking and after 
taking." They had learned it in a most satisfactory way. 

We went up afterward into the eighth or ninth grade where the 
little women, as 'they were then, were gathered around a fine Ameri- 
can matron who was teaching them to be that finest thing on earth, 
an American woman. One thing after another showed, to one who 
is used to visiting schools, how that woman was little by little work- 
ing into the minds of these children the ideals, the ambitions, and 
the aspirations of American womanhood. We could sec very little 
of it ; we could feel a great deal of it. Then, after a while that 
company of girls set about repeating in unison the first lines of 
Evangeline. There were Russian Jews (one of the best girls in the 
class was a Russian who had come over only three or four years 



12 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 25 

before), there were Italians, Hungarians, Poles, and Scandinavians. 
They had become, all of them, American citizens, and as I listened 
to their rendering of the familiar lines, I thought as I still think 
that I had never heard it, and never shall hear it, better recited than 
it was recited by those new Americans. " This is the forest 
primeval " : The crowded city about them was little like the forest 
primeval, but the lines meant in some measure to them the things 
that America means. 

A little while ago I had the pleasure of visiting, through the 
courtesy of Superintendent Maxwell, some schools of a similar char- 
acter on the East side of New York, and there found the same things 
going on ; and not only on the East side, but over on the West side, 
too, in the lower parts of the city. 

I found there a room in which were some of the essentials of 
American life, and among them a basin of water and a piece of 
American soap. Everything was labeled. The word " wall " was 
on the wall, and " window " on the window. The children were 
learning the names of things. Their first lesson was to go to that 
basin and wash their hands. I saw it done and it was done thor- 
oughly. They even washed well up on the wrists. And they ex- 
plained what they did in American speech : " I dip my hands in the 
water " ; " I rub soap on my hands " ; " I rub my hands together." 
It was all well done, and when at last those little hands were dried, 
another Sicilian had taken another step in the language of this 
nation, and another step in the practice of American cleanliness. 

In that school is the trained nurse, one of the fine auxiliaries of 
the city school of the present day. She did not stop with the work 
she found in the school, but when she found that certain tenements 
were the homes of a great number of the absentees from the school 
she went to those tenements and helped the mothers learn how to 
prevent much of the illness of their children, by care and cleanliness. 
Some of these New York schools, too, are provided with baths. 
And in New York, I am told, the same trouble was encountered as 
in Boston — the unwillingness of the mothers at the beginning to 
have their children take the baths, because they had sewed them into 
their clothes for the winter, and did not want the trouble of taking 
them out again. Yet through all these difficulties, in spite of mobs 
that have surrounded the schools when the attempt has been 
made to improve the health of pupils by slight and sorely needed 
surgical operations, by methods differing Avith different nationalities, 
Polish, Hebrew, Italian of many provinces, these people are gradu- 
ally Americanized. 



1906] A NATIONAL VIEW OF EDUCATION I3 

So we are taking the nations of the earth into our fellowship. 
And what is it that we are inviting them to? We will say, readily 
enough, that we are inviting them to democracy; but do we under- 
stand that the great lesson for the American people, the lesson which 
will take not years, but generations, maybe centuries yet, to learn, 
even though our great, great grandfathers were Americans, the 
lesson for the American people, native here and foreign born, is to 
know the meaning of democracy. To know what our democracy 
means — that is the one • great lesson for the whole American 
people. Now, I shall not attempt very much of a forecast of the 
ultimate determination of that lesson tonight, but I wish to call 
attention to this one fact — a fact that I think sometimes is for- 
gotten — that if people understand one another they will be well 
disposed one to another, and to understand the meaning of democ- 
racy is really to understand the minds of our fellow men. And I 
think we may begin to define democracy in some such form as this : 
Democracy is that state of society in zvhich every man really cares 
to understand ail of his fcllozv men. When every man really cares 
to understand his fellow men, then we may hope that men will strike 
hands together fearlessly and work together for the common good. 
For so I firmly believe ; and the more I become a democrat the more 
firmly do I believe, that if we do understand one another we shall 
be well disposed one to another, and be able to pull together heartily. 

So, in speaking of education from a national point of view, the 
idea that I would like to present tonight is simply this, that the 
business of American education is to enable people in this country 
to imderstand one another. We see how this works out in some of 
the actual programs of our schools. We see that in the teaching of 
history we are trying to understand those common traditions, to 
know those great names, that make the common meeting ground for 
all of our people, and, understanding our history, we are able to 
understand all sections of our country at this present time. So in 
the teaching of our American literature, we are trying in all parts 
of the country to become familiar, in its best setting, with that sen- 
timent which is peculiarly American, with those aspirations, those 
ideals, that are American. Thus nurtured, the feelings of our people 
must gradually blend into one national life. And so geography, 
which in recent years — I suppose this is heresy here — has become 
too exclusively physical geography, geography, too, if it is well 
taught, becomes a human study. It is a study in which, learning 
about the different sections of our own country, we learn to under- 



14 441'H UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 25 

stand them as varied aspects of one national human Ufe. We come 
to understand the different aims, the different works, the different 
influences upon the hearts of men, in all parts of this one wide land. 
From history, from literature, from geography, from manual train- 
ing, too, we come into sympathy with all kinds of human toil and 
endeavor. We are trying — all parts and all classes of this Ameri- 
can people are trying — to understand all other sections and all other 
classes ; and it is education to keep at it and keep at it, through all 
sorts of delay and discouragement, making it the business of our 
schools to see that our people understand one another, and so be- 
come in reality a democracy. 

The old idea of the savage was that if he could kill his adversary 
the strength and courage of that adversary would pass into himself 
and he would become, accordingly, a greater man. When he had 
killed one adversary he became, in effect, two men; if he could kill 
two adversaries he became as three men, and so he went on gaining 
by the courage and strength of those whom he destroyed. The 
higher view, that seeks an understanding of our fellow men, per- 
suades us that every man whom we understand has thereby added 
his stature to our own. We have the joy of spiritual enlargement 
when we come to understand a man whom we have never understood 
before. There is something fine and uplifting in the thought of it. 

In the strife of modern parties we are too often, perhaps, actuated 
by a purpose like that of the savage who proposed simply to destroy, 
in order that he might have the strength of the one whom he de- 
stroyed. There is a time for strife in our civilization, and it is only 
a coward who will run away from strife when the time for it is 
come. But in a large part of P;Ur civilized relationships that strife 
resolves itself into something better than strife. I think we have 
seen in some of the best of our deliberative bodies in recent years 
a process somewhat like this : Two sides come into direct opposition 
over some bill. At first it is simply a fight, that one side may win 
and the other side be defeated. But as civilized men, they stop and 
think, even while they dispute. Little by little the one side modifies 
its views. It finds some flaws in its own proposal and some good 
in the argument of the opposing side. Again, the opposition modi- 
fies its stand ; and after a time a piece of legislation emerges which 
is better than was proposed by the one side in the first place and 
va.?tly better than the flat negation of the other side. Both have 
risen to a higher \•h^^r in the very course of their strife. They 



1906] A NATIONAL VIEW OF EDUCATION 1 5 

have come to be more interested in a piece of needed legislation 
than in simply gaining a partizan victory. I am free to say that 
instances of this sort are rare enough even now, but I think we have 
seen more than one in our national legislation of the past two or 
three years, and I believe they mark the trend of civilized life. 
There is a growing conviction that it is worth while to understand 
even the men who are opposed to us. Here, I think, we find a great, 
commanding purpose of democratic, American education — ■ to lead 
men to care to understand the thoughts of the other side. 

This land of ours is welcoming the nations of the earth into its 
membership. It is doing more than that. It is going out to meet 
the nations of the earth. The national view of education becomes, 
of necessity, for Americans an international view. Our liberty is 
for the enlightenment of the world. That we may understand one 
another is not enough ; we must seek to understand the nations of 
the world. In understanding other nations we shall add their great- 
ness to our own. We shall add their civilization to the stature of 
our civilization ; we shall advance our own ideals when we view 
them from the side of those who differ with us, as well as from 
inherited standpoints of our own. 

American education, then, while it is in full measure a national 
education, a democratic education, an education for the understand- 
ing of one another here at home, should be an education in which 
Americans show that they care to understand the other nations of 
the earth. Here we have a kind of international democracy. See 
how it comes into our courses of study; how it has done so all 
through the ages, in some degree. We study the geography of the 
world (if we are not studying a purely physical geography) in order 
that we may know, in their home surroundings, the other nations 
of the earth. We study their occupations, which have much to do 
with making them what they are. That one little book, the Seven 
Little Sisters, has helped to introduce into our schools, away down 
in the grades, the spirit of international sympathy. We study the 
history of the ^^•orld in order that we may know the common heritage 
of all the nations and find the common meeting ground of the senti- 
ments of the peoples of the earth. We study the languages of other 
nations : but so far as modern languages are concerned, we may 
confess that we have not done it very successfully. 

In the higher schools, the past history of education has largely 
turned upon the question of the study of ancient languages. The 
stock argument for the study of those languages has, I think, been 
too generally linguistic. We really study the ancient literatures, if 



l6 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 25 

we make them thoroughly educational, in order that we may under- 
stand certain great peoples of the earth, who have reached down 
from ancient times to our time a mighty influence that moves the 
minds of men today. We study the Hebrew scriptures in order that 
we may understand the religious life of that ancient people. We 
study Greek and Latin literature that we may add to our life some- 
thing of the greatness of Greek and Roman life. Through; a large 
part of our educational history we have carried on the study of 
Christian antiquity and pagan antiquity, side by side. All through 
the centuries, since the early Christian ages, the attempt has been 
miade to explain the relations of these two lines of study. They have 
been inadequately explained, but they have gone on in the schools, 
side by side, and we have a better civilization for the fact that, 
although in a halting way, we have tried, really tried, to understand 
the mind of the great nations of the ancient world. 

At the present day we study, in our higher schools, the languages 
of the modern world. Our visitors from Europe who come to us 
from time to time and return to make their reports on our educa- 
tional conditions to their home governments, tell how badly we do 
it. The latest report of this kind has not yet reached the American 
public, but a summary of it will be put forth in the next few weeks. 
It is a report issued by a commission from the Prussian Ministry of 
Commerce and Industry who visited this country in 1904 to see how 
our education was carried on. A most interesting story they have 
to tell. They critici.ze in strong terms what they call the pseudo- 
classicism of our education, illustrated by the motto over a section 
of the Philippine exhibit at the St Louis Exposition, which read: 
Per pacem ad lihertas. And they report that German, in the schools 
which they visited, was taught very badly indeed. I suppose there 
is no doubt that we are teaching the languages of the modern world 
in a very inadequate way. We need to improve that teaching on 
the linguistic side ; but we are never going to get the good out of it, 
the educational value which it has to offer, until we make it a means 
of understanding the peoples of this day in which we live. 

It is the peculiar province of elementary education to teach 
nationalism, to teach the national view. It is the province of 
secondary and higher education to teach the international view. 
That, at least, has been the case in large measure in the past. We 
see now that both elementary education, and higher education, if 
it is to be national education in the full sense of the word, must 
lead to an understanding of our own people and an understanding of 
other peoples as well, and that even in the teaching of our intermedi- 



jgo6] A NATIONAL VIEW OF EDUCATION 1/ 

ate grades we shall not fully convey the lessons of our own nation- 
ality unless we present them somewhat in the setting of the larger 
view. To be good Americans we must be citizens of the world. To 
understand other nations is to help our own nation to be a world 
power that makes for righteousness. 

There are three great ways in which we are going forth to the 
nations of the earth : We are going forth to them through our mis- 
sionaries ; we are going forth to them through our agents of com- 
merce ; we are going forth to them through our diplomacy. From 
all of these points of view it is desirable that we understand the 
other nations of the world better than we understand them now. 
It is well for us to admit that we do not understand them very well 
as yet. Our missionaries need to understand and appreciate the feel- 
ings, the morals, the religions of the peoples to whom they go. This 
need is emphasized in some of the best of recent missionary litera- 
ture. Those who represent us in commerce abroad need to under- 
stand the races with whom they deal, and not treat them simply as 
peoples to be exploited, or to be ground under the heel. This is 
simply to say that they need to take the far view of commercial 
advantage and not alone the near view, for to understand the people 
with whom we deal is to profit more in the long run by our dealings. 
And if the missionary and the trader will^ both of them, care to 
understand the people to whom they go, there is better hope that 
they shall not work at cross-purposes and spread misunderstanding 
of the land they represent. 

And w^hat of our diplomatic relations with the nations of the 
earth? Our Department of State should have behind it, among our 
people of every class and every geographical division, an ingrained, 
national purpose to understand the peoples and nations with whom 
this nation has to do. Our American diplomacy should rest securely 
on an American sentiment that cares to understand the peoples of 
the earth and regards no people as wholly foreign and beyond the 
pale. Such an understanding makes for peace, and we, of all 
nations, should seek for peace. If Ave understand the nations of the 
earth we shall, with rare exceptions which are to be more rare, main- 
tain with them relations of peace and mutual advantage. War has 
its place. The time has not yet come to do away with preparations 
for war. But war has now a place only as making toward the 
peace that counts for righteousness. And we may hope that by 
steady working forward along the lines of such diplomacy as we 
have known in recent years — the diplomacy of John Hay in China, 
the diplomacy of Elihu Root in South America, the diplomacy of 



l8 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

President Roosevelt in the affairs of Russia and Japan and in the 
affairs of Cuba — by such diplomacy as this we shall move toward 
that end so greatly to be desired, when 

The war drum throbs no longer, and the battle flags are furled 
In the parliament of man, the federation of the world. 

It is a large question that I have asked you to consider, a',qHestion 
that seems remote from the daily work of the schools. But it is 
not remote from the work of the schools; for unless every little 
school in the land shall make for that kind of humanism which is 
real democracy, these great purposes of our national life- and of our. 
international relations will not be possible of attainment. With 
ever new significance our ministers of religion are to go on pro- 
claiming from their pulpits the great, eternal doctrine of the father- 
hood of God ; and we who teach in our little schools or in our greater 
schools — it is for us to go on teaching the other half of that great 
eternal truth, the brotherhood of man. 

Friday morning, October 26 

THE STATE AND ITS COLLEGES: WHAT THEY CAN DO 
FOR EACH OTHER 

PRESIDENT GEORGE E. MERRILL LL.D., COLGATE UNIVERSITY 

Reducing certain suggestions of the Education Department to 
their lowest terms, I thus formulate the topic to which I am invited 
to speak. It is broad enough. Indeed, to quote a passage of the 
New Testament about the heavenly Jerusalem, " The length and 
the breadth and the hight of it are equal." I propose to treat it 
forwards and backwards, as the mariner can box his compass. I 
shall ask, first, what are a few of the ways in which the State can 
help to simplify, unify and strengthen the work of the colleges ; and, 
second, what the colleges and universities can do in giving assistance 
to the State in these and other matters. If in traversing this often 
traversed subject it may be found difficult to avoid the trite and 
commonplace, repetition may at least give emphasis. I have a 
friend who finds it difficult to make the natives of foreign countries 
understand him, when he is traveling within their borders. It seems 
to him that they must have some defect in their hearing. So he 
speaks louder and louder, and finally shouts his sentence at them. 
Generally it results in their doing something, even if it is not quite 
what he desired. The process may not be wholly useless even when 
we speak the same language and dwell in such intimate fellowship 
as marks our educational life in America. 



T906] THE STATE AND ITS COLLEGES IQ 

Moreover, with every passing year all such considerations, become 
of larger importance, and, as we make progress, of varied cliaracter. 
As new occasions come they teach new duties, and in our swiftly 
moving times the new occasions appear often enough. Do we reali/^e 
what a single generation has experienced in the changes of education 
in the State of New York? I can do nothing further than give 
the comparative figures of attendance upon the public schools and 
in the colleges, leaving out altogether the vast advances made in 
subjects, method and expenditure. The mere number of students 
now as compared with the number 30 years ago will be significant 
of the growing importance to the State of the agencies at work to 
return so many young men and women to her service with an ade- 
quate mental and moral equipment. In 1875 there v/ere 3 191 stu- 
dents in the undergraduate departments of the colleges in the State 
of New York. In 1904-5 the number was 8246, or 2.58 times as 
many. In 1875 the population of the State was 4,382,759, and in 
1900 it was 7,268,894, or 1.66 times as many. In the public schools 
in the same period 1,059,238 pupils have grown to 1,242,416 in the 
year 1901, or a growth of only one sixth. That the large propor- 
tional growth in sentiment for the higher education is also very 
general is shown by the fact that it appears in nearly all colleges 
and apparently is independent of mere environment. The 
city college, drawing a large portion of its students from the 
city itself shows as large a gain as the college drawing from much 
wider areas. The college in the country with no large population 
around it shows similar growth, sometimes in defiance of an actual 
falling ofif in the surrounding population, as in the case of the college 
which I know best, which has increased from 119 in 1875 to 273 
in the present year, while the population of the county (Madison) 
has decreased from 42,324 to 40,545. I have taken this period of 
about 30 years as marking approximately the life of a generation. 
It needs no words to show how great is the influence upon our 
social and civic life of this increasing body of educated persons, and 
how a single generation may add emphasis to any question relating 
to our educational methods and equipment. 

I The State can aid the colleges in the following ways : 

a Perhaps there is nothing more important, nothing more deeply 
felt particularly by all colleges that receive students upon certifi- 
cates as well as upon examination, than the great differences rep- 
resented by diplomas of high schools and the certificates representing 
the work done in them. At once we must gratefully recognize the 



20 441"H UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

admirable work done already by the Department in equalizing the 
schools with this end in view ; we must also recognize the great 
impulse given to this matter by the College Entrance Examination 
Board, which indicates a standard to which every reputable college 
will seek to bring its own entrance requirements and which therefore 
must be approximated by the preparatory schools. But we are a 
long way distant yet from the time when every valley shall be ex- 
alted and every mountain made low. It is a criticism often made 
by teachers of secondary schools that the colleges themselves agree 
upon no common list of subjects required for entrance, though most 
colleges permit equivalents for their specified subjects in many 
cases. And there is no doubt that it is a serious evil that a teacher 
must search the separate catalogues and attempt to meet as many 
different standards, when he has boys wishing to enter various col- 
leges. And equally it is an embarrassment to the college and a 
wrong to the student, if the applicant comes up without the full line 
of subjects required or with such faulty preparation in them as to 
prove him inefficient. If admission is by examination alone, of 
course the applicant's deficiency is at once apparent. But if he 
comes by certificate, it is not infrequent that he enters with hopes 
that must soon be dashed, and considerable time is spent in retriev- 
ing the mistake. It is probably desirable that in our State the cer- 
tificate courtesy should be extended as widely as possible, and cer- 
tainly the Regents' guaranties should not be declined. But it still 
remains that there are high schools and high schools, and colleges 
and colleges, of very difirerent grades, and how their work is to be 
brought to a common level, and one general standard be demanded 
of all, unless by the aid of the State, it is hard to see. Again, I 
would not minimize the work that is already being done in this direc- 
tion. It is and has been admirable. But we hope for more. Some 
of the State universities make use of an inspector, or of a visiting 
board made up of their own professors, upon whose report schools 
are accredited. But it must be a faculty of considerable size that 
can well afiford the frequent absences of professors upon such work, 
and probably but few besides the state universities can follow this 
plan. In some universities the plan is followed of accrediting any 
well reported school, until any of its pupils received into college 
shall show such inefficiency as to negative the claims of the school. 
In New England two or three years ago a board maintained by lo 
colleges was appointed to approve schools for the certificate privi- 
lege, but its usefulness for unifying requirements was limited by 
the provision that it might approve any school which could prepare 



1906] THE STATE AND ITS COLLEGES 21 

candidates on any one of the recognized plans of entering any one 
of the colleges represei;ited on the board. Of course this permission 
weakened the action of the board in comparison with what could be 
accomplished by a State university through a committee accrediting 
or affiliating schools upon the plan of a unified curriculum required 
within the State. And as a matter of experience the New England 
board finally decided to rely upon the standing of the graduates of 
each school after entering college, thereby doing exactly what many 
of us in New York are independently doing. But why can not the 
State of New York do something of this sort for itself? Here we 
have in our Education Department a mechanism not existing in New 
England. More and more closely the Department is being geared 
to the public schools under its charge and on the other hand to the 
institutions of higher learning. The Department recognizes clearly 
that quality as well as quantity of work is essential, and it recognizes 
as clearly that whatever may be said of a parity of quantity in the 
high school work, there is the largest disparity of quality throughout 
the State. Perhaps this is unavoidable in present conditions. Per- 
haps it will take a long while to reduce the inequalities. I am in- 
clined to think so. No man should ask the impossible. But can not 
the State do for its colleges and universities something of this in- 
spection that is successfully done in many states by the state uni- 
versity — something beyond what it is now doing in its general su- 
pervision of the schools? Can not there be a tabulation of high 
schools, whch would show the colleges at a glance what grade of 
work would be represented by the certificates, if taken ? And would 
not this very measure set a standard for the ambition of every high 
school in the State, which would itself go a long way toward the 
realization of the excellence desired? It might still be impossible 
to regard a diploma as unfailing evidence of a candidate's fitness 
for entrance to college ; but the special certificate of the principal 
would not only stand for assured work in his own school, but mean 
also that the well recognized standard of all schools in all localities 
had been reached. Unless we are to require examination of all stu- 
dents it is necessary that some plan like this should be instituted to 
make the certificates of schools within the State assume a value that 
can be beyond doubt. The old plan, of which I have been told, 
might have been a good one, the issuing of a special college entrance 
diploma entirely distinct from the diploma of graduation. If this 
college entrance diploma is ever used now, we do not see it at 
Colgate. Something of the sort would be useful. 



2.2 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

h This leads directly to the suggestion that the Education Depart- 
ment would do an important service if some. clear definition were 
to be given as to what a college is. What, too, is a university ? We 
may see very good reasons why the public school in modern times, 
with the tremendous pressure of public opinion upon it, should be 
no longer a place for the old " book larnin' " alone, but a sort of 
nursery in the elements of all employments and trades. It is right 
that the schools supported by public funds should offer very varied 
opportunities to the children of taxpayers. Politically, if not edu- 
cationally, it is a wise policy to teach in the schools a smattering of 
all the sciences and arts, with manual training, as well as the three 
R's and the higher branches formerly required for admission to 
college. It would plainly be a mistake now to hold our secondary 
schools to the single line of preparation required for the later pur- 
suit of higher studies and not admit the preparation for the bread 
and butter occupations that a large proportion of our children must 
follow. The very nature of the public school should make its sub- 
jects various and variable. But for those young people who do go 
to college, and for the colleges themselves, it is important that college 
work shall be defined; the relation of secondary school work to col- 
lege work be settled ; and the determination of the university be 
stated. The State has already, and very wisely, defined the signifi- 
cance and value of academic degrees. It has withdrawn by its re- 
quest, one degree, the Ph.D. from the list of honorary degrees, and 
now few colleges of account continue to give fhis degree except for 
specified work. And it is generally i\i'J thai c,. give an honorary 
Ph.D. is a discourtesy and an anacl/ inism. In the same way let 
the Education Department discourage colleges from all specializing 
and encourage the university or the profes^'^nai "hool alone to do 
this work. There is a constant pressure upon the college to go be- 
yond its proper function. We see it especially today in the demand 
for civil, mechanical and electrical engineering. President Taylor's 
reports show the frequent pressure at Vassar for the introduction of 
domestic science. Music, also, now urges its claims to be taught as 
an occupation or an art. Harvard College was the earliest, some 
40 years ago, to place music theory in the curriculum under the late 
Prof, J. K. Paine, and in 40 years has never yielded a jot to modern 
demands for the music conservatory as a part of a college. Here 
too is a special danger in women's colleges, and Vassar I am glad 
to say is standing sturdily against it. Harvard is this year intro- 
ducing business courses in the department of economics. The 
college properly can not be a technical school whether for cooVmg, 



1906] THE STATE AND ITS COLLEGES 23 

engineering, or any other bread and butter science. Let the State 
draw somewhat closer the definitions, and so far as possible insist 
on the university limiting its college, if it have any at all, to a small 
number of students mainly for the purpose of offering within the 
university a laboratory or clinic for the use of its faculty of 
education, as Chancellor MacCracken suggested in a Convocation 
address two years ago. And on the other hand let a college be re- 
stricted, and not offer graduate work and professional work at 
least till the teaching force and equipment shall conform to State 
requirements. There would not be much difficulty in keeping the 
college of a university small, as most young men and women would 
object to going to college mainly for the pedagogical advantages 
of a portion of the faculty and of the students in educational science. 
On the other hand the college proper would be able to concentrate 
its energies upon purely culture subjects, and to employ exclusively 
college methods. And its facility in giving the work appropriate 
to youth, its- advantages of personal contact between student and 
teacher, its care for physical welfare and the moral nature, its en- 
thusiasms of companionships as well as of common studies, and its 
training for all future specialization whether in profession or bus- 
iness, would not fail to appeal to young Americans to lay broadly 
the foundations of an effective life. A college should not be a 
school where intensive work should be encouraged beyond the 
necessar}^ thoroughness required for all honest work. The work 
of a college should be distinctly extensive, broadening the faculties 
as well as the knowledge of the student. The work of the univer- 
sity ought to be directly and exclusively, so far as may be, intensive, 
?nd that of the graduate school as well should be differentiated 
from the work of the college. Can not the State help us to this 
end? What earthly aid can come to us for these purposes unless it 
comes from the Department? Who shall set up the norm of char- 
acter and method for the great branches of our school system, if 
the State does not? There may be an approach to an agreement 
by indirection, and Commissioner Draper has gone a long way in 
instituting periodical meetings of the university and college pres- 
idents for the discussion of problems of the higher education. 
Another step has been taken in the formation of the Association of 
Presidents, though I fear it has made a mistake in declaring its 
functions to be mainly social and friendly rather than for the study 
and discussion of college themes, as in the kindred association in 
New England, which has there proved so vital to the interests of fhr: 



24 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

higher education. But not only by indirection, but by direction ; not 
only by inviting the colleges to confer together, but by putting be- 
fore them definite subjects for consideration; by preferring special 
requests, as it has done in the case of the conferring of degrees; 
by determining particular points, as it has done the inestimable 
service of giving us the value of the hour in reckoning the require- 
ments for entrance, by assisting so admirably in the coordination of 
the colleges with professional schools, as in the case of medicine 
while yet the work of the two grades, the college and the profes- 
sional, are kept separate ; in any way in which opportunity offers 
for suggestion or request, the State can lead us and the Department 
may be sure that its help will be welcome, its wish honored, and its 
efforts maintained by cordial confidence and cooperation. We are 
not so quixotic as to believe that state legislation could effect what 
is desired. The discussion at the Council of State Superintendents 
in Rochester last week upon the question of too minute prescription 
by the State in educational work would indicate that such pre- 
scription even in the public schools might be carried too far. But 
we recognize loyally the right of the State to indicate the best 
ways to us, and we welcome all wise suggestion and every well' 
considered request. 

c And now I shall tread upon delicate ground. Two or three 
years ago the colleges approached the State with a petition for the 
appointment of a commission to investigate the whole subject of 
state aid to higher institutions of learning. The immediate occasion 
was the proposed grant to Cornell University of a quarter of a 
million of dollars for the erection of an Agricultural Building. Per- 
sonally I believed and still believe that this grant was wise, and 
rightly made. But it was felt that all such appropriations by the State 
should be made only upon a clear understanding of the relations of 
all the colleges to the State and to each other; upon a consideration 
of the needs of all ; and with due regard to the general interests of 
the higher education. The petition suffered in the house of its 
friends in amusing ways. It was subjected to the misunderstanding 
that it was equivalent to hostility to Cornell and also to the equally 
silly cry that the colleges were opposed to the farming interests. 
There were several hearings before committees and the Governor, 
and at the last, the " embattled farmers stood " in packed ranks 
with only one poor college president to appeal for the righteous- 
ness of the cause of light and inquiry. There could be but one 
issue, and the petitioners, most of whom had already withdrawn. 



1906] THE STATE AND ITS COLLEGES '25 

had leave to withdraw, their cause going down to defeat. But there 
is an old saying that truth crushed to earth will rise again, and I 
am inclined to think that this is a good time for it to rise. Especially 
when there is no specific question at issue, and when no particular 
college seeks any advantage, we may once more urge that the State 
ought to have some well defined policy, a policy that should at least 
have the intelligent consent of the higher institutions of learning, 
as to grants from the government for the aid of all or any of them. 
Since the Cornell grant, St Lawrence University has received a 
large sum. All such matters should be taken out of politics, and I 
submit that the very best way to do that is to have just such a com- 
mission as the petitioners prayed for in a less fortunate time than 
this. I do not believe such a commission should be one hastily ap- 
pointed, or created for a special occasion. It should be of standing 
character; it should be of recognized dignity; it should be wholly 
unpartizan ; it should be the avenue of approach to the government ; 
and apart from its agency and recommendation no request for State 
aid should be entertained. Do we not have such a commission in 
the Department of Education itself? It may be a very unwelcome 
suggestion that this delicate task should be laid upon the Education 
Department, which already has a few difficulties to meet. But 
could not the Department at least furnish the nest in which such a 
commission or committee could be hatched and reared? In which 
it should rest securely whatever hostile blasts may blow? The 
whole question is one of supreme importance to the State itself and 
to all the educational interests of the State as they are embodied in 
its colleges and universities. The policy heretofore has been one of 
drift. The practice has been one of apparently haphazard, indefinite 
yielding to the temporary demand. Any deep, well considered prin- 
ciple has been conspicuously absent. " Each one for himself and 
the devil take the hindmost" has been the motto, somewhat un- 
worthy, it must be confessed, when the matter pertains to the State 
and to education. Public hearings, so likely to fall into the hands 
of interested classes should not settle what ought to have the 
patient, unbiased consideration of skilled educators. There is but 
one way, it seems to me, to reach the difficulty, and that is through 
such a standing commission as we have suggested. To this, of 
course, the State must give its gracious attention and from the State 
the aid must come. 

Allied to this question of State aid but more important and far- 
reaching, is the problem of the State university, touched upon last 
night by our honored Regent-Chancellor. The coming of the uni- 



26 •44't"Jl UNR'ERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

versity was predicted as sure, and it was said that no man could 
prevent and no man could hasten it, and perhaps its coming would 
cover more time than many of us have left on earth. It is pertinent 
to inquire whether the growth of such an enterprise is to be that of a 
highly cultured fruit of a carefully, intelligently tilled garden, or 
whether it is to grow up like a weed, the result of heedless sowing 
or of the chance demands which the careless hours may bring. Wise 
as our Education Department may now be, or as it may be at any 
future time, such a question ought to emanate from no single source 
or be pressed by any class of people. In an old state Hke Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut, or New York the problem is entirely different 
from what it has been and is in younger commonwealths. Many 
centers of the higher education already exist. Millions of dollars in 
endowment and equipment will be affected. Splendid educational tra- 
ditions and the most sacred trusts are involved. So long as Harvard 
College lasts, so long as the Institute of Technology does its great 
work, so long as other great institutions of learning serve the old 
Bay State, it is not likely that any new state university will find 
favor there. And is New York to disregard the splendor of its 
present educational institutions? At any rate if this question ever 
shall secure serious attention, and if it be true, as it certainly is, 
that no one man can hasten or hinder the creation of a great educa- 
tional system for a state, it is all the more imperative that all the 
experienced educators of the State should be intelligently united in 
the consideration of any measure of such importance as "the found- 
ing of a State university. 

2 At the beginning of this paper I said that the breadth and 
bight and length of the subject were equal. It is now evident that 
my paper can not be as symmetrical as the subjec't, for the second 
part of it must be as brief as the first part has been long. How can 
the colleges help the State? 

a A few years ago the Education Department corrected the in- 
justice by which the college graduate did not have the privileges 
of the normal school graduate in entering upon the profession of 
teaching. More recently college privileges have been generously 
extended. It is now our task as colleges fully to justify the confi- 
dence of the Department. The Commissioner gave the presidents 
a hint a year ago that we are not- doing all we might do. If the 
college-bred teacher is in any respect falling short of the require- 
ments or even the hopes of the State, we must leave no possible effort 
untried to make the product better. The colleges ask no higher 



1906] THE STATE AND ITS COLLEGES 2/ 

privilege than to contribute the best possible material to the teach- 
ing force of the State; and "if today the great preponderance of 
college men in the noble profession of the teacher is any index of 
their value, the future certainly should not suffer from any lapse of 
care in providing men still better equipped for their work. 

b It were trite to say that the college can and must give the best 
manhood to the State. But it is very pertinent and not so trite 
to ask if the colleges are now preparing citizens of the best type. 
One danger lies in the tendency to specialization of which I have 
spoken. Specialization narrows and restricts, if it is not carefully 
guarded. The colleges can foster the breadth of manhood, and be 
jealous for the freedom of culture so boundlessly valuable to the 
State. And it may be well, though unpopular, to ask whether we 
are doing the best thing for our young manhood in promoting 
athletics and sports to such a degree that excitement, publicity, 
and ambitions somewhat lower than the highest are made the rule 
of life. And I think many of our colleges may be rightly arraigned 
because their social conditions and notably their fraternity life breed 
the club spirit and induce an extravagance of living not good for 
American citizens. It is not good that our boys should be housed 
in college, whether in fraternity houses or in college dormitories, 
in a luxury that they never have enjoyed and never can enjoy after 
graduation. It is not good for American homes or American man- 
hood, that conditions of life prevail in the institutions of learning 
which lead our young men and women to fear marriage, because it 
can not be supported in the extravagance learned in student years. 
This is the trouble with the nonmarrying college graduates, and not 
the mere difference of a year in the length of the college course, as 
President Eliot has argued. Let our colleges preserve a modestv 
of living, a reserve and the quiet refinement worthy of the scholar ; 
let them stand strong against the rush of modern life and keep at 
least their four years of repose for the highest mental and moral 
pursuits ; let them be the conservative force, lacking almost every- 
where else, for the preservation of the simple life, without which 
any state is in peril. We shall help the State in no truer way, and 
help our Education Department in no truer way, than by empha- 
sizing the essentials of the humanizing culture for which our char- 
ters were originally given. 

Commissioner Draper — In spite of the fact that I am down 
for the next address, I rise for a moment or two because I can not 
bear to have this all important subject seem to go by default. This 
is an admirable presentation of a very important theme in the 



28 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

educational activities of this State. We need a number of more 
decisive influences in our educational afifairs and among them there 
is none more desirable than the accentuation of the college influence. 
The trouble is that our eastern college people are too dignified ; they 
do not get limbered up enough. They are too afraid to rub up 
against the crowd. Now we have had three or four fine conferences 
of college men in this State. You get them all together in a room 
and in the course of an hour or two they will thaw out and get 
enthused and really begin to see ways for doing things to put life 
and vigor into the educational activities of the State and will make 
the best kind of promises about what shall be done. They are all 
coming to Convocation next time and they are going to start and do 
things. And then they go home and get busy and forget about it 
because they are not used to it. Their conception of the college 
attitude is not what it is in the West and as a result they do not get 
into the educational activities of the State to any great extent, and 
their energy and assistance is needed very much indeed. 

Now I have been struck by three or four of the points made in 
this paper and I agree with every one of them and there is no 
sensitive ground on any topic brought out that should prevent a 
free discussion. In the first place I wish the State of New York 
could do something more to help its colleges, particularly its smaller 
colleges that need the help most. I am not at all adverse to a thor- 
ough discussion of that subject, not at all opposed to the appoint- 
ment of a commission of college presidents and others who would 
give full consideration to what the State could do to help its colleges 
along. Of course there is one thing that has always got to be borne 
in mind in this connection and that is this ■ — that wherever the 
State aid goes, the State's influence has got to go; wherever the 
State's money goes the State's influence has got to go, not only that 
the money may be properly and wisely expended and do what it is 
intended to do, but also because of the need of the reflex influence 
upon 'the State itself. The State's money can not go without the 
State's supervision and oversight ; and it ought not to go without 
such intelligent supervision and such sympathetic oversight that 
there is a reflex influence upon the sentiment of the State and par- 
ticularly upon the State's educational thought. 

We have got three or four colleges at least in this State that are 
old and historic and for which I have a feeling of veneration and in 
every one of which I am decidedly interested. They are struggling 
along, having hard work to get on, needing more money, the de- 
mands upon them being beyond their revenues ; and if there were 



1906] THE STATE AND ITS COLLEGES 29 

any way in which the State could help them along I would be 
delighted to have it do so. 

I noticed President Merrill's suggestion about colleges being 
kept within college fields, and universities taking up only university 
functions, etc. That is all very well. I noticed what he said about 
President Taylor's report concerning domestic science and house- 
hold economics in Vassar, etc. Let me point out to you the differ- 
ence between the eastern and the western college or university. The 
eastern college is everlastingly advancing theories and undertaking 
to justify them, and in development and expansion and trend they 
lay much store upon theories. It does not occur to the westerner 
that the Almighty needs so much guiding as the easterner thinks 
he does. The westerner is rather disposed to let things develop 
about as they will and to respond to a demand whenever it may be 
responded to. I am quite in sympathy with President Merrill's 
suggestion that no college or university ought to go into any enter- 
prise until the time comes when it can do it well and properly and 
thoroughly and capably. But whenever there is a demand for a 
thing to be done and you can scrape up the money with which to 
meet the demand, you better do it. 

As to the suggestion concerning a State university in this State, 
of course we are going to have a State university some day. These 
eastern states are not forever going to lose the advantage that 
flows out of the great state universities of this country. All of us 
here do not realize that, but it will not be so forever. The time 
will come when there will be a great free state university in every 
state upon the Atlantic coast. It certainly will be so unless the 
tuition fees at the eastern universities are so very low and the op- 
portunities so very common that no son or daughter of the common- 
wealth is denied the privilege of practically free instruction in any 
study in the university. 

But let me add another thing. There is nothing in the suggestion 
that the development of the State Normal College at Albany is in- 
tended by the present educational administration of the State to 
lead to the evolution of a State university. And the prese^nt State 
educational administration will not start upon covert plans, and will 
not start upon any plans without disclosing its purposes and the 
nature of the plans, so far as it has any purpose. It is the idea of 
the administration that this Albany institution shall be made an 
institution of unquestioned college grade for the purpose of training 
teachers, substantially for the high schools ; and beyond that there 
is no purpose about it. 



30 441"I1 UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

I have taken more time than I ought ; but we need to do anything 
we can to help the college activities of the State, to bind the colleges 
together, and particularly to develop their energy in the entire 
educational work of the State. 

President James M. Taylor, Vassar College — I had not ex- 
pected to say a word this morning, nor have I any desire particularly 
to enter into any discussion of the great subjects that have been 
presented to us within the few minutes that must be at the command 
of any single speaker. I only want to say that it seems to me 
the East has something to say for itself; that if there is such a thing 
as following too slowly the indications of Providence as I under- 
stood the Commissioner to suggest, there is such a thing also as 
hurrying the ways of Providence. There is such a thing as history 
and 1 think there has been a little more tendency in the East to 
regard the traditions of history and the outcome of experience ; in 
other words that the West has had a great tendency not only in edu- 
cation, but in finance and in matters of farmer organization, such as 
the granger movement, sometimes to hasten a little the ways of 
Providence. I read somewhere the other day, Mr Dooley's defi- 
nition of a fanatic as a man who was doing what the Lord would 
try to do if the Lord fully understood the case. I think there is a 
little tendency that way with our western brethren. I have the 
largest respect for the West, go West and am in touch with the 
West, believe in the West and in the western spirit, and I think 
that a good deal of it in our conservative eastern atmosphere is a 
good thing. But a spice of our eastern conservative spirit would 
likewise do the West a good deal of good. 

Mr Chancellor, for 20 years I have from time to time in this 
place listened to the addresses of representatives of state univer- 
sities. I used to say to Mr Dewey, whose work I think will be more 
appreciated in after years than it has been in the immediate past, 
" Why don't you give the eastern universities a chance ? Why 
don't you do the fair thing in this Senate chamber ? Why don't you 
ask Mr Eliot to give us a presentation of the claims of the voluntary 
university?" I believe myself that the State of New York is setting 
its face in the wrong direction in talking of the establishment of 
a State university. I do not believe in it, or in a national university 
at Washington. I believe it is an unnecessary development of ad- 
ministrative power; that it is the satisfaction of certain ambitions 
which are worthy but at the same time unsound ; that it would be 
a duplication of work that in these eastern states is being done 



]906] THE STATE AND ITS COLLEGES 3 1 

just as well as in any western state university. Our eastern colleges 
have something- to say for themselves along that line. 

I am only going to say this in connection with a statement that 
has been made by the Commissioner and that was referred to in 
the admirable paper of President Merrill : We have taken the 
ground at Vassar College that we are a college. We have distinctly 
withdrawn all claims to do university work, though like all the 
colleges in the East as well as in the West we are doing a good deal, 
after all, of what used to be called university work lo or 15 years 
ago in distinction from college work. We are trying to keep our- 
selves to college work, and by that we mean a course that leads to 
a liberal education. When it comes to a question like that of 
domestic science, I know perfectly well a western university would 
not stop for a moment. If the State of New York should come to 
me today and say we will give- you $100,000 to establish domestic 
science in Vassar College, I should say, '' Gentlemen, we do not 
want your money."' We are doing a work for liberal education and 
we have enough to do in that direction. We are taking care of all 
that we need to take care of and we are sending out women every 
year who can take domestic science or anything else on top of a 
liberal education. 

That is the reason we do not care to establish a special teachers 
course at Vassar. We send out a great many teachers. We say to 
them, " If you want to be good teachers, first learn something." 
The great difficulty with our method of educating teachers is that 
we put so much stress on method and so little on something to 
teach. We say distinctly to our students, first knoiv something; 
get a good education, and then if you are going to elevate the teach- 
ing profession, do as you would do with the ministry, or with medi- 
cal science, or as you would do with the law ; go and get a good 
training in the methods of teaching; go to a teachers college and get 
professional training on the basis of a liberal education. We can do 
at Vassar College just as much for the teaching profession as is 
being done in any other college in this State. We have just as good 
facilities. We can take time for it if we will, but we do not choose 
to do it, and on the basis of a theory, if you will. We believe that 
the teaching profession should be based on a broad, strong, liberal 
training, and on top of that a professional training that is really 
broad and strong, and that thus we will make the teaching profession 
of this country something more than it has ever been before. 

Now I say that if our western brethren in this respect are much 
more liberal than we are it is because they love to touch everything 



32 44'i'H UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

and anything, and there is such a thing as overexpansion. We will 
do better work in this State if we hold ourselves in our varied insti- 
tutions to something definitive than we shall if in every one of them 
we try to cover the whole thing. 

I wish, Mr Chancellor, that that proposition of President Merrill's 
might be thoroughly considered by the Regents and by the Educa- 
tion Department of this State in regard to the formation of a com- 
mission that shall have in charge matters that come to the Legis- 
lature pertaining to money grants to our various colleges. We have 
nothing to ask at A'^assar of the State. However I only represent 
my own view in the matter and can not speak for the trustees of 
Vassar. T am in favor of doing this work through the voluntary 
system. I am enough of an old-fashioned American to believe that 
the State can not do everything and ought not to be expected to do 
everything, and that begging of the State in all of these ways is bad 
for our education and bad for our charities. We are saying too 
much on the matter of State care and State efficiency and it is not 
pure democracy. We hear a great deal about Jeffersonian democ- 
racy in these days, but I am talking about democracy in a philosoph- 
ical sense. 

I will only add one word. I H-as not in the State at the time that 
this matter came up before the Legislature. I was abroad for a 
while and did not follow the discussions and did not know of it; but 
1 do know this — that the work in this State shows that whenever 
colleges have gotten into the way of going down to the Legislature, 
they sutler in just the same way that any other body of men suffer 
who are always courting favors from the Legislature. It is not good 
for the colleges, it is not good for the president of the colleges or 
for any man who represents the colleges ; and this has been so from 
the days of Dr Nott of honored memory down to the present time. 
It is not good for any man to have to face these legislative com- 
mittees and work through schemes. It is bad for any man who rep- 
resents the higher interests of the State to have to do that sort of 
thing before the Legislature, and that is what we have been doing. 
That is what we are doing in our present system, and that is the 
way all these various grants have been gotten from the Legislature 
— grants for Cornell, grants for St Lawrence, grants for Alfred 
University, and if I should go before the Legislature or into a legis- 
lative committee room and ask that they remember the womanhood 
of this State ; if I should suggest to them that the young women of 
this State ought to have the blessing of a domestic training, and 
should picture before the Legislature the beauties of a home train- 



1906] THE STATE AND ITS COLLEGES ■ 33 

mg, if only the State would give us money enough — do you doubt 
for a minute that the Legislature would give some money to Vassar 
College ? And I say that would be pernicious, and unfit for an edu- 
cational institution and I do not think that any college president 
ought to be subjected to that sort of thing. 

Commissioner Draper — I agree with about all that President 
Taylor says. There was however one sentence that might possibly 
be misleading. I do not think he intended to imply that any of 
these grants to special interests have had the backing of the Educa- 
tion Department, but that there may be no misunderstanding about 
that I wish to say distinctly that there would be no ground for such 
implication. (President Taylor assented to this.) 

One other suggestion, as between eastern and western interest in 
education. I am not a westerner. Do not have any mistaken idea 
about that. One thing, however, for President Taylor and the rest 
of us to think about is that as men and women grow older, and as 
states grow older, they naturally and inevitably grow more con- 
servative. We always accumulate conservatism and we seldom 
accumulate energy and aggressiveness as we grow older ; and so it 
is well for us to develop all the energy and all the aggressiveness 
we can, and the conservatism will be pretty sure to take care of 
itself. 

Dr Joseph E. King, Fort Edward — I hope somebody will 
move that these timely and wise suggestions along the line of our 
work, unifying and making strong and wide and perfect our educa- 
tional system, and I move you, Mr Chancellor, that these suggestions 
and recommendations be favorably commended to the consideration 
of the Regents, that some action may come in the near future. I 
would add simply that it seems to me preeminently timely, when 
the State has shown so broad and generous an attitude as to provide 
with its millions for secondary education, even to the extent of free 
textbooks — it is timely. for this great rich State to see to it that 
we make the future beyond the high school all that it ought to be 
and all that we can make it ; and if it needs to be supplemented by 
some of the cash of the State, to give it out generously. 

Just one other suggestion occurs to me, in connection with Dr 
Merrill's statement that among the progress of recent years the 
educational authorities at Albany have recognized a college diploma 
as equal at least to a normal school diploma in opening the doors 
of the schoolhouses. In consequence of that recognition it might 
be a timely and handsome thing for the colleges to place among their 



34 44'i"I'I UNIYERSriN- convocation [OCTOBER 26 

electives in the junior and senior years a little something in the line 
of pedagogy, inasmuch as not a few of the young men and women 
who are looking to professional life other than the profession of 
teaching often find it convenient for financial reasons, and some- 
times to broaden their education by real contact with the human 
mind in the classroom, to teach a year or two before going to their 
professions. Let us help them a little by giving them an opportu- 
nity to choose an elective in pedagogy. 

In conclusion I wish to say that I was delighted with the wisdom 
and the saneness of Dr Merrill's paper. 

Vice Chancellor McKelway — The Board of Regents will accept 
the suggestion of the gentleman who has just spoken and will give 
the subject that has developed this morning the special consideration 
which its importance demands and which the manifest opinicn of 
the Convocation desires. 

ACADEMIC EXAMINATIONS AND ACADEMIC FUNDS 

HON. ANDREW S. DRAPER LL.B. LL.D., COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION 

No other State gives anything like the amount of money that New 
York State gives to the upbuilding of secondary schools. Our people 
give $65,000,000 each year for education and $7,850,000 for the 
annual maintenance of our 800 schools of secondary grade. But that 
is not what is now in mind. Reference is now made to the funds 
distributed by the State government to encourage the scholarship in 
and the expansion of the higlf schools and academies. The State 
began the policy even before she began to appropriate State school 
moneys for the elementary schools. She has maintained the policy 
with uniform sagacity and steadily enlarging generosity. The State 
support of the academic schools is more liberal than the State support 
of the elementary schools. The schools of approved academic stand- 
ing receive academic funds in liberal addition to the distributive share 
which they get as common schools from the State school funds. 
This is right because they are much more expensive and because 
the elementary school system and all of the educational interests of 
the State are very dependent upon them. The special fund given by 
the State government for promoting the excellence of these ad- 
vanced schools, which have come to be the vital connecting link 
between the elementary schools and the colleges and universities, 
and which have come to be the scarcely less vital link between the 
elementary schools and real success in our complex intellectual and 
industrial activities, is piore than a half million dollars annually. 



1906] ACADEMIC EXAMINATIONS AND ACADEMIC FUNDS 35 

This has been going on a long time and I make free to say that I 
think it should have been more uniformly effective than it has. 

The precise basis upon which this fund is allotted is left to the 
sound judgment of the Board of Regents. It goes without saying 
that it must be given in recognition and encouragement of 
scholarship. This has not always been as easy as the inexperienced 
may suppose. When the academic schools were few, before and 
ior some time following the development of the public high schools, 
and when the appropriations were not large, the academic funds 
were apportioned upon the educational pedigrees of the teachers, the 
studies taught, the architecture of the schoolhouse, and the general 
reputation of the school. It seemed the only way. Then it was dis- 
covered that a better way for finding out about the work of a school 
is to examine the students. The teachers were not examined as the 
teachers in the elementary schools were ; there has been no special 
certificate for high school teachers ; and it is the truth that they have 
often shown less altitudinal competency for their work than the 
teachers of the elementary schools have for theirs- And up to the 
later eighties there were no means by which the Regents could even 
partially inspect the secondary schools. 

This developed a system of academic examinations which for 
many years, except for two or three brief periods, has been the 
basis of distribution of academic funds. This examinations system 
is quite exceptional in our country. So are the State academic ap- 
propriations. Both distinguish our State. There are some who 
seem frightened by the fact that other states do not do as we do. 
I am not one of them. There is no other State that is as great 
as New York, either in educational experience, authority, or re- 
sources. We will base our judgments upon our own situations and 
act upon what we think. 

For many years prior to 1900 the funds were apportioned accord- 
ing to the number of pupils who passed the examinations and, for 
reasons which are well known and need not here be discussed, the 
examinations were steadily extended, enlarged, intensified and com- 
plicated. The trend of the examinations system led to pedagogic 
abuses, and doubtless to something worse at times, in order to 
enlarge a school's share in the funds. There were those who would 
rather trust to the report of an academic inspector than to the 
answers which their students would make to the examination ques- 



36 44'^H UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2& 

tions. In the meantime, inspectors had multiplied and the inspect- 
ing system had grown. 

Accordingly, it was determined in 1900 to distribute the funds in 
proportion to the attendance at each school of academic pupils, 
without reference to their passing examinations, when the University 
inspectors reported that the admission requirements of the school 
were equivalent to those required for the preliminary certificate. 
This relieved schools from the necessity of submitting their students 
to examination in order to share in the funds. It is true that the 
examinations have continued to be used in nearly or quite all schools 
using them before. The number of schools using them has enlarged 
notwithstanding the abolition of the requirement. That evidences 
the common estimate of their value. In some formerly using the 
examinations it has led to only partial use, to jugglery, and to other 
abuses ; and some schools which never used the examinations have 
come to share in the fund without the State having any very exact 
knowledge of their work. 

History has only repeated itself. Two or three times in the un- 
folding of our academic history the Regents relaxed the requirement 
that schools must submit to the examinations in order to share in the 
funds, only to meet with disagreeable but stern facts which soon 
convinced them that they must go back to it again if they would 
protect their funds and realize their expectations. A careful inquiry 
which has been in progress since our educational reorganization 
brought the officers of the Education Department and the Regents 
in April last to feel that it was necessary to return to the require- 
ment that all schools claiming a share in the funds must use the 
examinations. This has stirred some circumscribed but 
fervid remarks. In one or two instances these have gone 
the length of opposing all examinations on the ground that they are 
narrowing, dwarfing, misleading, mechanical, uninspirational, juice- 
less, and about everything else bad in education that the excessively 
pedagogical and the prematurely overspiritual are able to think of. 

Of course we must have freedom in the schools, but before that the 
schools must have the elements which need and can exercise free- 
dom. Of course the imagination must be developed in education,, 
but imagination which does not connect with earth claims re- 
straint, or leads to madness. Of course spirituality must have its 
free opportunity in the schools, but there are a good many 



T906] ACADEMIC EXAMINATIONS AND ACADEMIC FUNDS 37 

of US who think that the honest capacity to do things in this world 
must be the vital basis of the spirituality which will be of the most 
worth in Heaven. Schools on earth must, in the first instance at all 
events, reckon with the thing's of earth. 

There is nothing so sacred about a system of examinations as to 
forbid its being discussed, criticized, condemned, modified or aban- 
doned if sense ha'; the right of way and reasons are convincing. It 
has been apparent to me for many years that our State educational 
interests would be promoted by the fresh discussion of and some 
decisive changes in car examinations system. The action taken in 
April and amplified in June, to which some exception has been taken, 
resulted from much fresh consideration of the matter by the officers 
of the Department and the Board of Regents. It was not at all 
impulsive. The advisability of what was done is not doubted and 
the reasons for it are not wanting. 

If it is a matter of any interest, it may be said that my personal 
feelings concerning the Regents examinations were expressed m the 
Board of Regents twenty years ago when I said, " I be1'ev^.i in these 
examinations heartily. So long as they exprTSo the best teaching" 
they are all right. They contain the elements of educational uplift. 
I oppose multiplying, extending and intensifying them. If that 
course is persisted in they will break down because they ought to, 
A good thing may be worked to death." My view is the same now 
as then, although my official relations with the Board of Regents 
have materially changed. Since our present relations were estab- 
lished my influence has been for simplifying the examinations, for 
reducing the number of the examinations, for reducing the length 
of the question papers, for avoiding so far as possible any hurtful 
consequences which may be merely incident to them, for making 
them representative of the best teaching, and not only responsive 
but helpful to the best progress in education. But I am not ignorant 
of the educational value of good examinations, nor of the need of 
examining students to find out about schools, nor of the desirability 
of recurring tests and permanent and continuing records to bring 
schools up and keep them up to their best. The value of ^proper 
examinations is no longer open to discussion in education. I ,think 
we can make as good examinations in New York as any other 
people can make, and that we can make such examinations both the 
aid and test of good work, without subi'ecting ourselves to the hurts 



38 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

which obtuseness in multiplying, extending and intensifying the ex- 
aminations may bring upon us. I see no reason why State appro- 
priations should not be allotted on the basis of good work, judged 
by all of the best tests, nor why the State's tests should not be 
applied alike to all who desire to share in the State's gifts to good 
scholarship. In all of this the Board of Regents and the Commis- 
sioner of Education are in entire accord. 

The Education Department makes an academic syllabus each 
five years for the general guidance of the academic schools. It re- 
quires no self-assurance to say in this presence that the syllabus is 
of inestimable value to academic schools. Practically all of our 800 
schools of academic grade are greatly advantaged by it. They 
are not afflicted by it. They welcome it. They feel that it is 
theirs; that they make it; that it is the joint product of the 
best thinking of leading academic teachers and the Department 
officials and is better than any one person or any one school could 
prepare. It is in use in a hundred cities outside of the State. 

This syllabus not only guides and inspires the teaching in the 
secondary schools, but it becomes the basis and limits the scope of the 
academic examinations. These examinations, held semiannually, 
are the State's tests of the work of the schools, and the stand- 
ings which pupils gain in them have recognized educational value 
for teachers certificates, for admission to advanced schools and to 
examinations leading to tHe learned professions. They ought to be 
and perhaps may be accepted as scholarship tests for admission to 
the State civil service, and to the county and municipal civil service 
throughout the State. The certificates have educational values com- 
monly understood in the State and widely recognized throughout the 
country. 

But the State does not say that any school must follow this 
syllabus or take these examinations. It does not distribute money 
on the basis of success in the examinations. It does not punish 
any student tor failure. It docs say that any school which claims 
the State's money must submit to the State's tests. And it does 
say that the higher educational standards and requirements for 
which it assumes responsibility must be completely met in some 
definite and exact manner for which it is able to vouch. 

Of course there are excellent people who assert their opposition 
to all examinations beyond those of the class teacher — which are 



igO'3] ACADEMIC EXAMINATIONS AND ACADEMIC FUNDS 39 

not examinations at all as we understand the term. These good 
friends grow radiant about mental reach, resourcefulness and grasp, 
about liberty in teaching, about spiritual expansion and the un- 
folding of the soul. They are rather interesting enthusiasts, if it is 
after dinner, and one has nothing else to do, and spontaneous humor 
runs low, and it isn't time to go home. But we all have our limi- 
tations, and the truth is that one who is so ebullient on that kind of 
thing must of necessity be wanting in perspective, in the sense and 
the strength and the adapting that are necessary to do real work 
in a real world, in the knowledge and the procedure which make 
for uniform efficiency in a system of schools. 

The sustained effort and the substantial accomplishments of the 
world have come from men and women who have been trained to 
see some things clearly rather than all things faintly, and to do defi- 
nite tasks as well as speculate about diversified industries. Out of 
this training and this exactness and the effort incident thereto, 
there come the fiber and texture and application and endurance 
which make sure of accomplishing things even though things are 
hard. 

The really competent have no fear of fair examinations. The 
ability to pass set examinations within the scope of the work pre- 
tended to have been done is a fundamental factor in educational 
competency- Any student who is sixteen years of age, half way 
through the secondary schools, and can not tell what he knows of 
a subject which he has covered, and tell it in a reasonable form in 
a rational examination limited by the scope of his term's work, and 
set by others than his teachers, has been badly trained. He has 
been wasting his time and doubtless some teachers have been unwit- 
tingly consenting to it. If he has to go to work, the ability to pass 
an examination is an acquisition exceedingly desirable ; if he is to 
go to college or to a professional or technical school, it is vital. 
If he can not begin to do it by the time he is half way through 
high school, there is little prospect that he will ever do it. If he can 
never do it he will be at least a partial and very likely a complete 
failure. 

We are going to continue the inspections, but at the best they can 
be only occasional. With a self-satisfied or antagonistic principal 
it is almost impossible for them to accomplish much. Under any 
circumstances they are often easy-going, meaningless and without 



4() 441'H UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

much result. They can not be like a sheriff's search or a legislative 
investigation of an insurance company. They have to be accompa- 
nied with much caution, and a great deal of politeness, and perhaps 
some conviviality of a scholarly kind. We are trying to make them 
wiser and firmer and kindlier and more potential, and to accomplish 
it we are going to check up on the inspector by ascertaining whether 
what he has been saying and doing about the school is evidenced by 
the work of the pupils. 

We shall continue to read courses of study, continue to see how 
many teachers in a secondary school have done any work above 
what they are teaching, continue to regard pedigree and general 
repute, and even to listen to the philosophy of pedagogical emotional- 
ists. We will talk about all this with as little prevarication as possi- 
ble and all of the politeness we have. But when a New York State 
secondary school claims a right to share in an appropriation made 
to build up secondary schools we are going to see what the upper 
class students of that school can do in our examinations, so as to 
know by the best tests known to educational experience what kind of 
work that school is really doing. We are not going to pay money 
in proportion to the number of students who pass ; we are not going 
to drive students to suicide by forcing such as are on the verge of 
collapse into an examination ; we are not going to hang all hope 
for this world and the next upon passing a single examination ; we 
are not going to set any more irrational examinations than we can 
prevent; we are not even going to withdraw appropriations because 
a considerable percentage of students do not pass. We are going to 
test the work of the school and when the test shows weak or worth- 
less work we are going to help the authorities of that school to make 
it better, if they will let us and if there is enough fibre in the man- 
agement to build upon; but if they will not let us, or if there is 
nothing to build upon, we are going to remember our responsibility 
to the State and the community most interested and tell the con- 
stituency of that school that there is something the matter with i., 
and what it is. 

The tests shall be uniformly applied. There shall be no evasion 
and no favoritism. Sharing in the State's bounty, definitely in- 
tended to be an encouragement to sound scholarship in advanced 
schools, shall be upon equal terms. The tests must be easy enough 
for the schools which are large and strong : those which are neither 
'may rightfully object to tests which the more conspicuous do not 
have to meet. And, truth to tell, it sometimes develops that the 
size of a schoolhouse and the claims of trustees and teachers are not 
always conclusive of the character of the school. 



1906] ACADEMIC EXAMINATIONS AND ACADEMIC FUNDS 4I 

Any who are unwilling to use the examinations can be accommo- 
dated by foregoing the appropriations, but the duty which the State 
Education Department owes to the common interests and to all of 
the people of the State will require that even in such case the De- 
partment officers shall ascertain the facts in the best way open to 
ihem, and afford information to any who may be interested. 

But the requirement that all schools expecting to share in the 
appropriations must use the examinations was accompanied by 
several other modifications of the rules, which have long been under 
consideration and are decisively in the direction of simplicity and 
relaxation. If each school sharing in the State funds must be ex- 
amined, each school doing so must feel the examinations much less 
than heretofore. 

It was enacted that the examinations should not be mandatory 
in any school except in the last two years of the course ; that success 
in passing the State examinations shall not be necessary for the 
promotion of pupils from grade to grade in or for the graduation 
of pupils from schools that prefer to determine such advancements 
by their own local standards ; and that the principal of a school 
may, for physical or mental reasons satisfactory to himself, but to be 
reported to the State Department, excuse a pupil from taking any 
examination. 

It was definitel}^ announced that, apart from the schools showing 
the Department what their children can do in an examination, from 
assuring some definite preparation for admission to the normal 
schools and the training classes, and to colleges and professional 
examinations, and from protecting the standards and certificates 
which the State guarantees, the legal power shall be reserved to a 
community to indulge in just as much " freedom " as it enjoys, and 
liave just as poor schools as self-satisfied theorists are able to make 
that commnity content with. They can even do that and be law 
honest, but let no one think that it carries moral right. No Ameri- 
can community has moral right to any but the best schools it can 
liave. 

The educational authorities of the State of New York are agreed 
in declaring their unqualified belief in the necessity of well defined 
and not too complex courses of work in the secondary schools, in 
some exact measuring of the results of instruction, and in the 
pedagogical value of examinations covering the work done, and set 
by others than the instructors, provided such examinations are rep- 
resentative of the best teaching and freely responsive to educational 
progress. 



42 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2& 

The whole world is relative. The highest competency for one 
task is marked incompetency for another. This is so, even though, 
the tasks are both educational. It is no reflection upon persons 
for whom 1 have the highest personal and official respect to say 
that our academic examinations ought to be prepared, or at least 
approved, by men and women who may not be disposed to accept 
employment in a State Department ; who are doing, or are in every- 
day association with, the best teaching, and who have outlook,, 
energy and discrimination equal to the highest intellectual and. 
educational demands of the foremost State- of the Union. 

In passing from the old way of preparing examinations, let us- 
not be unjust to the people who have heretofore done the work. 
It has been encompassed by many troubles. It is easy enough for 
a teacher to think that he could make a better examination paper 
than another does. It is easy enough to think one question should 
have been omitted and another admitted. It is easy enough for 
teachers to differ about the values of answers. Teachers get their 
recreation out of such differences. It remains to be seen whether 
the examinations will be prepared better hereafter than heretofore. 
And while we are finding out let us be considerate of the men and' 
women who have been doing it very conscientiously and very satis- 
factorily in the years that are gone. 

We are now going to see if we can not do much better through a 
New York State Examinations Board, for which the Board of 
Regents provided at the June meeting, in the following language : 

" This board shall consist of twenty persons — the Commissioner 
of Education, the three Assistant Commissioners, and the Chief of 
the Examinations Division shall be ex officiis members, and the 
Commissioner of Education shall be chairman. Fifteen other mem- 
bers shall be appointed by the Board of Regents, ordinarily at the 
time of the University Convocation, five of whom shall represent, 
the colleges and universities, five the high schools and academies, 
and five the city superintendents. Only such persons as are en- 
gaged in teaching or in supervision in this State shall be members 
of the board. The appointive members shall serve for five years 
but the first appointees for each group shall serve for one, two, 
three, four and five years, as designated by the Board of Regents." 

"The functions of the Examinations Board shall be to appoint,, 
with the approval of the Commissioner of Education, committees 
to prepare question papers for State examinations, and to advise 
with the Commissioner in respect to the form and contents of sylla- 
buses covering the subjects of study in the elementary and secondary^ 
schools." 



1906] ACADEMIC EXAMINATIONS AND ACADEMIC FUNDS 43 

" This board shall serve without compensation, but the ordinary- 
expenses incident to attendance upon meetings called by the Com- 
missioner of Education shall be paid by the State." 

■' The committees appointed by the State Examinations Board to 
prepare question papers shall consist of three persons each. Ohc 
cf each committee shall be an officer of the Education Department; 
the other two members, for preacademic subjects shall be principals 
of elementary schools, and for academic subjects a college teacher 
and a secondary school teacher. Each teacher shall serve for one 
year and shall receive from the State the necessary expenses in 
attending meetings of his committee in each year and an annual 
honorarium as follows: on preacademic subjects, English, Latin, 
Greek, history with civics and economics, mathematics, biologic 
science, and commercial subjects, $50; on German, French, Spanish 
and drawing, $40; on physics, chemistry and physical geography, 

$30." 

Yesterday the Board of Regents appointed the first State Exami- 
nations Board as follows : 

Colleges 

President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University, to serve 

5 years 
President Rush Rhees of the University of Rochester, to serve 

4 years 

Chancellor James R. Day of Syracuse University, to serve 3 years 
President David W. Hearn of the College of St Francis Xavier, to 

serve 2 years 
President A. V. V. Raymond of Union University, to serve i year 

Secondary schools 

Associate City Superintendent Edward L. Stevens, in charge of 
high schools, New York City, to serve 5 years 

Principal Walter B. Gunnison, Erasmus Hall High School, Brook- 
lyn, to serve 4 years 

Principal Frank H. Rollins, Stuyvesant High School, Manhattan,, 
to serve 3 years 

Principal Frank D. Boynton, Ithaca High School, Ithaca, to serve 
2 years 

Principal L. F. Hodge, Franklin Academy, Malone, to serve i yeat 

Elementary schools 

Superintendent William Henry Maxwell, New York city, to serve 

5 years 



44 44TJ^i UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

Superintendent Henry P. Emerson, Buffalo, to serve 4 years 
Superintendent A. B. Blodgett, Syracuse, to serve 3 years 
Superintendent Charles E. Gorton, Yonkers, to serve 2 years 
Superintendent Richard A. Searing, North Tonawanda, to serve 
I year 

Since initiating this action the great city of New York, where the 
examinations have never been used because the high schools are 
new and the superintendent and other officials have never been 
satisfied with the method of preparing the examination papers, has 
determined to come into the examinations system. We are glad of it 
for we need the aid of the men and women who are at the head of 
the school system in that great city in giving trend to the examina- 
tions and uplift and energy to all of the educational activities of the 
State. And they need us. It begins to look as though we are going 
to have an educational oneness beyond our highest expectations. If 
it be so we shall gain educational power beyond our fondest dreams. 

When argument in this matter is about over and the attempt 
to organize an opposing propaganda has failed, the broad allegation 
is made that unification in this State has been accompanied by 
narrowness, autocracy, bureaucracy, inconsistency, and some other 
possible ailments. The charge comes on schedule time. It is the 
stock argument of the man in education whose ideas or ambitions 
do not prevail. It can not often be noticed, generally 
iDecause it is not worth while, and particularly because a 
State administration which refuses to be insipid and is something 
■more than polite, one which takes the initiative and resists attack, 
is held, for that very reason, to furnish added proof of its selfish 
arrogancy and its insane purpose to overthrow all educational 
freedom. 

As between initiating movements which the few will call over- 
reaching, and the insipidity which kills all energy and the nerve- 
lessness which destroys all opportunity, the present administration 
will elect the former. And just now I, for one and for once, welcome 
the charge that has been made because it provides a substantial 
reason for pointing to steps in the direction of democracy, local 
educational freedom, and liberalized State policies, which have been 
taken in our State affairs since the reorganization of the State 
educational administration : 

We have absolutely withdrawn all State directions about, or re- 
sponsibility for, examinations in the elementary schools. 



1906] ACADEMIC EXAMINATIONS AND ACADEMIC FUNDS 45 

We have given complete responsibility for admission to the sec- 
ondary schools to the local authorities. 

We are excluding mere academic work from the normal schools 
and giving it over to local high schools and academies. 

We have been making the elementary syllabus less directory, less 
minute in its prescriptions, and less difficult in accomplishment. 

We have given over the whole foundation of teachers certificates 
to the local academic schools. 

We have commenced to give all college graduates, even though 
they have no teaching experience, teachers certificates without ex- 
amination. 

We are now excusing all high schools from requiring their pupils 
to take any examination whatever before the pupils are half way 
through the high school course ; we are leaving it to local principals 
to say whether any pupil of any age is unfit to take an examination, 
for physical or mental reasons ; we are leaving the standards of pro- 
motion in and graduation from all academic schools to the local 
authorities, so far as they wish it so ; and if there are any people in 
New York who possess a school which they think ought not to have 
any exact standards or respond to any known tests, and if they will 
relinquish their claim upon the State's moneys, we will have to let 
them go their own sweet way until their experiences bring them to 
their senses. 

We are now turning over the whole matter of giving trend and 
setting limitations to the work of the schools, and of determining 
the examinations to be held in the schools, to leading teachers of the 
State, in the State Examinations Board. 

Instructions have been given to Department officials and employees 
to travel no more than is required by the clear demands of the 
service. They are not desired to be present at the occasional but 
not unusual functions of a school, for- it ought not to be assumed 
that such functions can not easily occur without representation from 
the Department. 

The Department officials have likewise been directed never to 
meddle with school elections or with the settlement of contested 
questions in local assemblages beyond declaring the terms of the 
school law and the manifest interests of education in the State. 
They have had the same directions concerning the elections and poll- 



46 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

cies of the voluntary associations ; they are not desired to do more 
in these associations than keep themselves well advised, give such 
information as may be desired, and engage reasonably in the open 
and public discussion of questions of general educational concern. 

We have demanded that all political or partizan hands shall be 
taken off the Department and off the schools, and that unselfish 
friends of the schools and particularly the officers and teachers of 
the schools shall be unhampered in their free opportunity to com- 
pound their experiences and their opinions and give trend and 
buoyancy to the educational activities of each city or district. 

No step has been taken which can fairly be held to disclose a 
thought of being exclusive, dictatorial, improperly ambitious, or 
vi^hich points to a purpose to develop the mechanical side of mere ad- 
ministration, the vicious power of officialism. There is nothing that 
we so much want as that every city and school district in the State 
may be able and disposed to develop the fullest measure of educa- 
tional capacity and independence. There is nothing to which we are, 
and I am, so much opposed as Department policies which will repress 
or retard such development. No one knows better than I that the 
glory of New York education is to be assured through the inde- 
pendent manliness and womanliness of the teachers in the schools 
and through the strength of the separate schools. 

But there is another side to it. So complex and involved is the 
work of the modern schools that many of the people — the un- 
professional people, at least — are often unable to discriminate be- 
tween good schools and poor ones. They commonly think they have 
excellent schools when they often have very poor ones. Something 
worse than that is often true, and particularly true of secondary 
schools. School boards and teachers are often unable to put any 
fair estimate upon the excellence of their own schools, and they 
sometimes block the efforts of their more intelligent constituents 
who know that the schools are not as good as they ought to be and 
are anxious to make them better. There is no block to the advance 
of a school so effective as that which is not infrequently interposed 
by dull or conceited officers and teachers of the school. The State 
Department owes something to the people of a city or school district, 
as well as something to the officers and teachers, and there is an 
administration here which does not intend to let many communities 
be beguiled into thinking that they have the very best schools when 



1906] ACADEMIC EXAMINATIONS AND ACADEMIC FUNDS 4/ 

in fact they have very poor schools, without having something to 
say about it. And we must have something to say about it, even 
though some officers and teachers may be troubled by what we say. 

Let us be understood in so important a matter. There is no one 
in the State educational administration, I am sure, who would not 
be ashamed of any policy or any attitude of the State which will 
not make a good teacher feel stronger and more independent in his 
, schoolroom, and which will not make every city and school district 
feel that it has an educational autonomy of its own, and an educa- 
tional salvation of its own to work out. There is no one here who 
would not give every help to every teacher who is capable of being 
helped. There is no one here who would not stand by and protect 
every teacher, no matter how high or how humble, who is unjustly 
opposed by the world, flesh, and devil factors in our democratic 
civilization. But we are opposed to narrowness and conceit. We 
are for the people, and the children, and the schools, as well as 
for the teachers. We can not protect one against himself when he 
is justly criticized or opposed. We are to help the teacher if he will 
be helped, and we are to help the schools whether or no, peacefully 
if we can, and through a contest if we must. We must give the 
best teaching and real progress their utmost opportunity to influence 
the educational career of the State. 

All that we have done is in the direction of democracy in learning 
and the same treatment for all by the State. We will be patient, 
even slow. We will hear everybody to the utmost limit of time 
and strength. But we assert that there are established values and 
recognized standards in education ; and that even a State may have 
come to know something of them, and may therefore exercise the 
right to apply them to all the secondary schools which it encourages 
with unparalleled liberality, without being justly charged with sub- 
verting the cherished liberties of the people. After hearing every one 
with all patience ; after free discussions in the associations and in the 
press ; with every disposition to wait reasonably for the consolidation 
of opinion; with entire confidence that there is no likelihood of 
serious divergence in our final judgments upon important matters, 
and refusing to spend much time over little matters, the administra- 
tion will take the responsibility which the law and the logic of the 
situation place upon it. And one man with a sane proposition, or 
one young girl school teacher with a just cause, shall have more 



48 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

weight here than forty men with foibles who have conceived the 
notion that coercion may be the product of combination. 

For myself, returning to the subject and coming to a conclusion^ 
I take the responsibility of saying that the secondary schools of 
New York have multiplied very rapidly. Some have been so much 
stimulated and have grown so rapidly that they are weak. More 
than half of them are without college graduates as principals. The 
colleges must do more for us. The boards of education must be 
more discriminating. The teachers themselves must realize that 
preparation for the secondary schools must be stronger. It is hard 
to say this but we must say it if we would mend it. Many of these 
schools are below the grade. It is vital that all be brought up to 
standard. It can be done. A school, particularly a high school^ 
does not have to be a big one in order to be a good one. 

If all of our middle schools can now be made thoroughly good^ 
if we can make sure that they are bemg taught by liberally educated 
teachers, and that the course really prepares for college or for the 
higher grades of work, we shall have at once given uplift to both 
the colleges and the elementary school system. We have the instru- 
ments, the Second Assistant Commissioner in the Department and 
the men and women upon the field ; we have the money, both cen- 
trally and generally. We can do this, and we are going to do it. 
We ask the help of every one of you. We will give you our help. 
We will not be overbearing or inconsiderate. We will be kindly 
but we shall be firm. We will not in any case humiliate you before 
your people unless your own obstinacy and their high interests make 
it necessary. In any case we will try to do our duty and we con- 
fidently rely upon all honest and intelligent friends of the schools to- 
help us. We have no purpose and no ambitions but to make an edu- 
cational administration that shall be worthy of and acceptable to the 
Empire State. If it is in us to do that, zve itnll not he turned aside 
from doing it. 

If we can uniformly grade up these secondary schools from Olean 
to Oyster Bay, and if we can in the next year or two establish super- 
vision in the farming regions that is reasonably equivalent to that 
which is now enjoyed in the cities and larger villages, we shall have 
an educational system that will be worthy of having its chief seats in 
a four million dollar State Educational Building. We have some- 
thing to do beyond securing the appropriations for the finest educa- 



3906] ACADEMIC EXAMINATIONS AND ACADEMIC FUNDS 49 

tion building in the world. We are to occupy such a building- 
worthily. 

Prin. Henry P. Warren, Albany Academy — In this State there 
are some high school headmasters who do not as do the headmasters 
of academies and the headmasters of private schools have the power 
to nominate and select and practically place their associates. It will 
always be true that there will be a large percentage of headmasters 
who will have their associates selected for them. They may have 
something to say, but in some cases will have nothing to say as to 
the selection. Now how are these men going to vindicate their ad- 
verse judgment of those teachers? How are they going to vindicate 
their nonapproval, their negative judgment, unless it is by means of 
these examinations ? A teacher is selected for you by an honest but 
mistaken committee. The State Board of Regents will set an ex- 
amination on that teachers work, and the teacher shows his or her 
incompetency. Then the committee is shown to have made a mis- 
take and the headmaster of that school is vindicated in his opposi- 
tion to the selection of that teacher. I am not speaking for myself 
for I have practically the selection of every teacher in my schooL 
But I was once a high school master and I know what mistakes 
local committees make when they select teachers for the headmaster,. 
and in a great many schools where there is a change of headmasters 
every two or three years the local committee makes the selection. 
But in communities where the headmaster holds his position for iq 
or 20 years there is no reason for the local committee selecting his 
associates. He should in every case make the nomination, and in 
no case should his selection be turned down without the very best 
of reasons. Now the State of New York proposes practically to 
relieve you of this responsibility by showing up the incompetency 
of teachers which selfish or careless boards select. I think the value 
of this point can hardly be overestimated. 

Prin. W. B. Gunnison, Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn — ^ 
I am very glad of this discussion on the paper of Commissioner 
Draper. I do not recall a word in that paper indicative of what 
the last gentleman referred to. Under the laws of the State of New 
York public school teachers must be licensed and certified as capable 
before any can be selected by any board of education for the teach- 
ing service. Those who have been in the public schools of the State 
for the last 20 years I think expected just such a paper as we have 
listened to this morning from the Commissioner. We expected that 
the entire examination system of the State would be reviewed, its 
weaknesses in the past shown, and a wise, sane proposition made for 



50 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

continuing the work throughout the State. That it seems to me is 
just what we have had. 

I think many of us have a dread of examinations, and yet every 
word that has been said in favor of them is true. The fact is it is 
not the examinations we have any reason to dread, but the inter- 
pretation that has been put upon the examinations ; and the strong 
thing about this paper is that there has been no hard and fast rule 
laid down whereby communities are obliged to make promotions or 
give credit on account of the examinations, nor must pupils go into 
the examinations when they ought not to be there. It explicitly 
says that the money to be apportioned is not to be determined by 
the results of these examinations ; and even if a school fails to pass 
a large number or even a reasonable number, it does not for that 
reason say that one dollar of the appropriation shall be forfeited. 
It is the wisdom shown in properly interpreting these examinations 
that should make every teacher in every community of this State 
feel that we are safer today than we ever were before through the 
inspection that we have from the State Department and I believe 
that no wiser provision for examining the schools, whether in the 
rural communities or in the city of New York, has ever been made. 
This we would expect from the Commissioner, who for the first time 
this morning outlines the change in the examinations conducted by 
the State. 

The greatest troubles we have are the things that never occur. I 
remember very well when a few years ago the examinations system 
was introduced in the high schools of the city of New York. I was 
as fearful as anybody as to the results of those examinations. 
Examinations of course will make a difference in any school. They 
will interfere somewhat with the independence of the teacher and 
the wisdom of that has to be determined by the results. I am glad 
to say as one of a large system where these examinations have been 
placed, and'as one who was fearful of their results upon the school, 
that I am satisfied that while the schools have been changed some- 
what and our methods modified, there is nothing to indicate but what 
the methods as used in the schools generally throughout the State 
are wiser and better by reason of these examinations. I believe in 
placing these uniform examinations throughout the State, esoecially 
for the wise and kindly purpose for which they are intended, viz to 
enable the State Department to have as absolute knowledge as it is 
possible for an outside body to have of the seoarate schools. It 
seems to me that the experience of the State will be what I believe 
the exDcrience of the city of New York has been, that they are wise 
and beneficial and very effective. 



1906] NECROLOGY -^ 5 1 

Prin. James Winne, Canandaigua — I wish as a man who has 
worked in sympathy with all of the State work on the Regents side 
to say that I am exceedingly gratified at the orderly and consistent 
and clear presentation of the work proposed by the State Depart- 
ment of Education. It is to me marvelous. I thought I was keep- 
ing track of the work that was in progress in the State, but it is to 
me a revelation and I trust that when this paper is printed sufficient 
numbers will be printed to send to every member of a board of edu- 
cation in every part of the State this orderly statement in an envelop 
•addressed personally to them as coming directly from the State. I 
received from its presentation an inspiration that I know will more 
than pay the community for my coming here if nothing else were 
presented. I am delighted with the paper and wish to thank the 
Commissioner of Education in behalf of my community for this 
clear, concise and definite statement, and that we find in the Depart- 
ment here not hard, unsympathetic rules, but manhood in its fulness 
and virility in its promise. 

Friday afternoon, October 26 
NECROLOGY 

REPORT OF COMMITTEE, SUBMITTED BY C. W. BARDEEN, SYRACUSE 

To present in a single report the deaths of a period covering two 
and one fourth years requires a condensation that to many of the 
friends of noble teachers named must seem unkind, but permits little 
more than a chronicle. 

There has been an unusual proportion of sudden and violent 
deaths, including that of the man who was for so many years a 
directing force at these meetings, James Russell Parsons, twelfth 
and last secretary of .the Board of Regents. On December 5, 1905, 
he was returning from the railway station in the City of Mexico 
where he was consul, when the carriage was struck, by a trolley car 
and so hurled against an iron post that he was killed instantly, in 
the sight of his wife and child. Suitable memorials have already 
been entered upon these minutes. 

Two former academic principals have also met death by railway 
accidents in this State. On November 12, 1.904, Charles F. Dowd 
was struck and instantly killed by a railway train at a crossing in 
Saratoga Springs. He had been for eight years principal of North 
Granville Seminary and for 34 years principal of Temple Grove 
Seminary. 



52 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

On August 8, 1906, Dr Godfrey R. Martine, former principal at 
Warrensburg, vv^as instantly killed by a trolley car near Glens Falls. 

Almost as sudden and unexpected were two deaths by apoplexy. 
On December 13, 1904, Prof. Achsah M. Ely of Vassar was stricken 
while walking across the campus, dying almost instantly; and on 
May 18, 1905, Charles R. Stiles, former principal at Goshen and 
Mount Vernon, and at time of his death principal of the Susque- 
hanna Collegiate Institute, Pennsylvania, died of an attack which 
came upon him just a week before. 

Two former principals have died in the hospital for the insane at 
Utica; on March 17, 1905, John H. Weinmann, former principal at 
Kingsboro, Schuylerville, and Fonda, and school commissioner 
1891-96; and in September, 1905, George M. Burr, former prin- 
cipal at Newport, Roxbury, and other schools. 

There have been six suicides: on June 23, 1904, Orlo B. Rhodes, 
former principal at Adams and reelected there, but despondent from 
ill health; on October i, 1904, Jeanie Rogers Sherman, for seven 
years instructor of drawing in the Syracuse High School ; on Octo- 
ber 20, 1904, O. E. Shaul, formerly a Brooklyn principal, who had 
recently recovered a verdict of $18,000 for dismissal; on August 14, 
1905, Wilbur F. Saxton, former principal at Barton, Ludlowville and 
Rushville ; on June 10, 1906, Fred D. Baxter, who had given up his 
school at Clarkson two months before in a fit of despondency ; and on 
August 21, 1906, Abraham G. Miller, former principal at Morris, 
Herkimer and Whitehall, who had proved unsuccessful in business. 

Of those to whom death came with less violence, three have been 
connected with the Education Department. Ella L.. Richardson, who 
died December 10, 1904, had been institute instructor and Regents 
examiner since 1888. She was a noble woman, who helped teachers 
personally as well as in their work. 

Edwin M. Holbrook, who died March 17, 1905, in Boston, was 
formerly for 12 years in charge of the Law Division of the Depart- 
ment of Public Instruction. 

Irving B. Smith, who died May 12, 1906, had been conductor of 
institutes since 1898, and was formerly principal and school com- 
missioner. 

Among the colleges we note these deaths. June 16, 1906, Harri- 
son E. Webster, former president of Union University. He served 
in the Civil War, and after graduation from Union in 1868 was 
instructor there till 1883, when he became professor of natural his- 
tory in Rochester University. In 1888 he became president of Union^ 
remaining till 1894, afterward doing literary work in natural history. 



1906] NECROLOGY 53 

November 9, 1905, David M. Greene, former principal of the Troy 
Polytechnic Institute. 

November 20, 1905, suddenly, of neuralgia of the heart, Ensign 
McChesney, dean of the college of fine arts, Syracuse University, 

In September, 1904, Daniel Wilson Fiske, former professor in 
Cornell, and a large benefactor of that institution. 

January 10, 1905, James Weil Mason, former principal of the 
Yonkers High School, and of Albany Academy 1863-69, and pro- 
fessor of mathematics in the New York City College 1878-1903. 

January 8, 1906, Mrs Helen Hiscock Backus, instructor in Vassar 
before her marriage to the president of Packer Institute. 

June 16, 1906, Joseph Hardcastle, professor of Commerce in New 
York University. 

August 29, 1906, William Buck D wight, professor of geology at 
Vassar. 

There are these deaths among those who have been principals of 
normal schools : 

February 3, 1905, John M. Milne, principal . since 1889 of the 
Geneseo Normal, the secret of whose success was declared at his 
funeral to be his advice, "Never ask 'Is it expedient?' but always, 
'Is it right?'" 

September 2^, 1905, Charles D. McLean, former principal of the 
Brockport Normal. 

In August 1904, Joseph A. Allen, first principal of the Fredonia 
Normal, and long before that principal of the old Syracuse Academy. 
He was superintendent of the Westboro Reform School for 10 years, 
and was afterward associated with his brother in the management 
of a private school at West Newton. 

There were three deaths among present and former superintend- 
ents : 

October 5, 1905, Robert S. Roulston, former principal of the 
Oneonta High School, who had just taken his place as superin- 
tendent at Waterford. 

May 3. 1905, William H. Vrooman, former principal and super- 
intendent at Geneva, serving the schools in some capacity from 1853 
till he was stricken with paralysis. 

March 9, 1906, in Arizona, M. L. Hawley, former superintendent 
at Binghamton. 

Among the city high schools there was the loss of two men not 
easily replaced : 

July 28, 1906, in Lakeville, Oliver D. Clark, first principal of the 
Curtis High School, New York, and former principal at Victor and 



54 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

Baldwinsville, going- in 1889 to the Boys High School, Brooklyn, 
as teacher of biology. 

February 21, 1905, H. Frank Miner, teacher in the DeWitt Clinton 
High School, former principal at Skaneateles, 1883-1903. 

These Regents principals died in active service : 

September 2, 1904, Leon J. Tarbell, Richburg. 

In November 1904, George N. Fuller, East Worcester. 

January 2, 1906, Emmett C. Miller, St Johnsville. 

April 17, 1906, William C. Covert, Morristown. 

April 21, 1906, Mother Stanislaus of the Convent of Mercy, 
Brasher Falls, for 23 years principal of the academies here and at 
Hogansburg. 

Among former Regents principals there were these deaths : 

December 20, 1904, in Malone, John I. Gilbert, former principal 
of Franklin Academy, member of Assembly, State senator and 
chairman of the committee that investigated and reported favorably 
upon normal schools. He had been from its opening a trustee of 
the Potsdam Normal. 

February 24, 1905, Joseph Addison Pringle, principal of Owego 
Academy 1861-69, and afterward of Lowville Academy and of 
Apalachin Union School. 

May 25. 1905, George G. Ryan, principal of no. 118, Brooklyn, 
and former principal of the Hudson High School. 

June 17, 1905, Charles S. Plank, former principal at Waddington 
and school commissioner, member of Assembly since 1899. 

July 3, 1905, Marcus Willson, principal of Canandaigua Academy 
1849-53, ^"d ^ successful textbook author. 

July 24, 1905, James Pitcher, former principal of Hartwick Sem- 
inary, and afterward a teacher there, and editor of the Hartimck 
Seminary Monthly. 

October 4, 1905, at Richford, Charles T. Hunt, former principal 
at Richford, Apalachin, and Greenwood. 

November 9, 1905, William Velasko, principal at Chittenango, 
1854-61. 

December 7, 1905, the Rev. Julian H. Myers, former principal at 
Rouse Point and school commissioner. 

January 12, 1906. at Washington, D. C, Franklin Moore, prin- 
cipal of the Rome Free Academy 1851-62. 

March 14. 1906, John Jacob Anderson, for 20 years principal of 
a New York grammar school, and afterward author of a series of 
histories and for years an attendant at this meeting. 



1906] THE NORMAL SCHOOL 55 

May 14, 1906, Dr James E. Kelley, formerly the firs£ principal 
at South Glens Falls. 

July 24, 1906, George W. Atherton, president of State College^ 
Pennsylvania, and former teacher in Albany Academy. islr 

THE NORMAL SCHOOL : ITS MISSION AND ITS 
HANDICAP 

PRIN. GEORGE K. HAWKINS M.A. D.SC, PLATTSBURG NORMAL SCPIOOL 

Modern society 'holds views that are strongly utilitarian. Its 
material interests are constantly and forever developing and it 
hastens promptly to adapt the means at hand to the new and better 
ends desired. In obedience to this utilitarian drift, society , in the 
form of the State has established and maintains schools, in order, 
primarily, that it may receive safer and better service — that greater 
efficiency and therefore increased usefulness and virtue may obtain 
in all the varied and complicated walks of life. So has developed 
the professional and technical school of every sort; so has been" pro- 
cured the cooperation of all our educational agencies: so has been 
brought about enlargements, modifications and correlation of' cur- 
ricula from the kindergarten to the university ; so has gradually 
evolved what we are now pleased to term the teacher's profession out 
of the nondescript occupation of the schoolmaster who flourished 
200 years or more ago. ' . 

Through some unaccountable and far-reaching stimulus, great 
thoughts which inaugurate new epochs seem to kindle spontan- 
eously in many and widely separate places at one time, and the 
rise of the normal school idea is a case in point. About a century 
since, both in Europe and America the attention of educational 
statesmen, aroused no doubt by that great movement at the heart 
of which lay the newly awakened appreciation of the individual, 
and which manifested itself in the birth of our own nation, in the 
Revolution in France and in the new aristocracy of citizenship, 
began to strongly turn, in the interest of social improvement, toward 
the training of teachers for the service of the state; and in 1839 was 
established in our sister commonwealth of Massachusetts the- first 
state normal school on this continent. Today we have some hun- 
dreds of them of all sorts and conditions — schools for specialties, 
subsidized high schools and independent institutions, schools wholly 
professional, semiacademic, public and private :■ and affiliated with 
their purposes in various ways some hundreds more of similar 



56 44'^'H UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [ OCTOBER 26 

activities all tending toward the same end — summer schools, cram- 
ming schools to prepare for teachers examinations, training classes, 
training schools for cities, university extension classes, experi- 
mental schools and pedagogical departments of colleges. 

Verily the occupation of the teacher would seem to be making 
giant strides along the high road to a profession and to be rapidly 
Hearing its goal. But notwithstanding these advantages, even an 
imperfect survey of the situation must tend to create the conviction 
that this occupation, so far as public school teaching is concerned, 
by virtue of a few very simple and easily apparent reasons, which 
have little to do with my present purpose, is nevertheless jogging 
along the route to professionalism, with much rumble and noise to be 
sure, but at a very moderate pace after all ; and it may be pertinent 
in passing to remark that these conspicuous reasons are chiefly three 
in number : ( i ) a payment inadequate to induce the highest talent 
to engage in this employment as a life work, and to give it the social 
recognition and the outward dignity which a profession rightfully 
demands and imperatively needs; (2) an insecurity of tenure due 
to the whims and caprices of society, if not to considerations still 
more unworthy, which has unfortunately contributed to make the 
teacher notoriously a rover; and (3) the fact that in large part 
at least it is giv^n over to young women who from the very nature 
of things are not accustomed to regard it as a life occupation, but, 
properly enough, are looking forward to the earliest convenient 
establishment of a home. 

These reasons it is impossible for a normal school or any other 
professional institution to nullify or to entirely change. And yet 
the means of their riemoval should be anxiously sought by every 
agency available, because the profession of teaching has great need 
of spirited men and women and has little of a durable nature to 
expect from him who does not feel the freedom to be himself, who 
is liable to undergo the humiliation of a journeyman employee upon 
the most trivial pretexts, whose wage will not encourage him to 
make the fullest possible preparation for his labor and who does 
not accept it as the permanent and most serious business of his life. 
To lend Its strength in common with every other interest of its 
kind, of high or low degree, to elevate the sentiment and enlarge 
the power of teachers, and to dignify their work in the eyes of all 
mankind until in consequence of both it shall no more be deemed a 
trade alone, is the brief and vaguely stated mission of the normal 
school. 



IQ06] THE NORMAL SCHOOL 57 

Whether the normal school has accomplished enough toward the 
fulfilment of this purpose, whether in the upper trend of educa- 
tional affairs which has undeniably and distinctly manifested itself, 
the normal school has been a factor sufficiently personal and great 
to justify the expenditure for its maintenance, has been the subject 
of much dispute. In New York the normal school idea has some- 
times met the active opposition even of the Board of Regents, 
Since its practical introduction, these institutions have upon occa- 
sion embraced within their experience the open hostility of the 
chief executive. Their usefulness has been investigated by com- 
mittees in search of inefficiency. State Superintendents of Public 
Instruction have more than once regarded them as a thorn in the 
official flesh. When they were limited to one or two, all things 
went well ; the sky remained serene. But when their increase and 
development on a larger scale took place, then the clouds began to 
darken and the chase was on. Aspiring high schools and old line 
academies in pressing need of rejuvenation have characterized them 
with bitter invective as interloping and extravagant appendages to 
•our educational machinery — political institutions designed to do a 
work which they could do as well. Legislatures have grudgingly 
supported while they have not ventured to abandon them. Colleges 
have viewed them with distrust as seducers of their patronage, and 
have treated them with studied contempt while, at the same time, 
recognizing their claims for useful and popular existence, they have 
set about organizing departments of their own to meet something 
of their declared purposes. These schools have known what it 
is at times to be the victims of suspicion and misrepresentation, of 
selfishness and jealousy. But they have always met the staunch 
support of the common people. The masses have evidently believed 
in them and they have gone on prosperously, opening up avenues 
of usefulness to the children of the middle classes and sending out 
multitudes of young representatives who have reflected magnifi- 
cently the work to which they have devoted themselves. The won- 
der is, all things considered, that they have succeeded so well, and 
had they not possessed a mission of some moment to professional 
education, it would have been impossible. But if I read the signs 
aright, the day of such dispute is past and the time has come when 
the usefulness of the normal school shall be freely and gratefully 
acknowledged by all, and when as an institution it shall be rescued 
from the somewhat anomalous position it has been forced to hold 
and shall be given some organic articulation with the State's system 
of education as a whole. This anomalous ppsition and the lack of 



58 44'J-'H UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

organic articulation have for many years and until very lately been 
among the most serious handicaps with which the normal school 
has had to cope. 

But the normal school has need to remember that the world is- 
moving and with acceleration. These are materialistic days. Arti- 
cles of faith are not alone sufficient in themselves to claim pro- 
longed attention. Glittering professions and general purposes, no 
matter how inspiring they may be, possess a short-lived interest 
and are readily ignored beneath the stress of rapid, vital circum- 
stances. For value received, today, is- an insistent principle every- 
where and " What can you do which no one else can do as well ?'* 
is a foremost question. Institutions, like men, must fight for dis- 
tinguished existence and vindicate their pretensions to superiority 
by the work which they perform or lose prestige and disappear. In 
our own field of education, to promote culture, to develop power^ 
to. build character,- to effect harmony with the great and admirable, 
to, educate^: are the acme of vague propositions leading nowhere of 
thems.elves, and the critical world will have none of them save when, 
coupled with the performance of specific things, calculated to ac- 
complish these results, and which are tangible, capable of analysis 
and effective. Every enterprise to be successful must possess dis- 
tinct objective purposes of which it never loses sight, and to retain 
the confidence even of its friends must be at all times answerable to 
every reasonable test of these objectives but at the same time, to 
make commendable headway it should not feel compelled forever 
to occupy defensive positions and to stagnate behind intrenchments. 
Worthy general purposes may not change in character but the means 
of accomplishing them often do. Fickle conditions, unstable envi- 
ronment and a broadening outlook may render necessary new ad- 
justments to satisfy them. This is the unavoidable history of every 
progressive movement, and the history of the normal school is no 
exception. 

What then is the mission of the normal school and what are the 
problems it must solve? How shall it fulfil its mission and how 
shall it meet its problems? These are questions which are being 
pointedly asked on every side and an answer is demanded both by 
friends and foes alike. Sixty years ago its mission was unequivo- 
cally declared to be the preparation of teachers for the common 
schools and so far as I am aware that delegated function never yet 
has changed. - Such was the platform upon which it had its birth 
and such it remains today but with the added significance of 60 
ye.ar« of progress. If the normal school has ever been consciously 



1906] THE NORMAL SCHOOL 59 

tempted away from this immediate duty, as it is sometimes 
claimed, but which I most seriously doubt, it has been, of course,, 
to the sacrifice of its own strength as an institution, and has been 
due to exploitation of selfish interests, to ambitious arrogance some- 
where in its management or a weak yielding to the whisperings of 
vanity; and has been to that extent a betrayer of the public trust. 

During the early years of its history in New York it certainly 
adhered quite closely to the original policy as defined by its pro- 
moters, and from the nature of the case, when scholarship was not 
emphasized as a requisite for entrance, that policy was forced into 
exceedingly narrow grooves ; and it soon became evident that to 
meet the deficiencies of academic qualifications among its patrons, 
the scope of its fvmctions ought to be enlarged. Then opened a 
new era for the normal schools of this State which has lasted until 
very recentlv, in which, owing to scarce convenient facilities for 
secondary education and to lack of adequate equipment elsewhere,, 
they undertook the dangerous experiment of providing appropriate 
academic instruction of high grade, as well. I say dangerous 
advisedly, meaning dangerous to the fundamental purpose of train- 
ing skilful teachers for the common schools, for I have never known 
a normal school in which this academic idea prevailed where the 
teachers of subject-matter did not command the highest salaries and 
were not clearly considered superior to the remainder of the staff, 
and which as a legitimate and inevitable outcome of such a policy 
v/as not three fourths a high school and one fourth a training school.. 
This assuredly was not the object contemplated in their foundation 
and in these times when high school opportunities are so accessible 
and frequent can not be justified upon grounds of reasonable 
economy. 

Then too, the atmosphere of study for academic knowledge, re- 
quiring close application to subject-matter with the possibility of 
failure upon examination in prospect, is not conducive to the 
mastery of the science and art of teaching as such, and never can 
be. One consideration or the other is bound to suffer in the end, 
and which it will be the conventional traditions of schools and the 
ordinary composition of faculties make it easy to conclude. This 
was a chief source of weakness in the teachers class of the old 
academy which often made a farce and a burlesque of a thing from 
which so much of value was hoped for and expected. No doubt 
this has been a natural and necessary element of weakness in the 
strictly professional aspect even of those normal schools among us 
which are justly entitled to great praise .for the efficiency they have 



60 , 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

achieved. No matter what befitting attributes of scholarship and 
the maturity which comes from rigid academic training a teacher 
should possess — without regard to the needfulness of these quali- 
ties, which will pass unquestioned — to provide them can no longer 
be accounted the real specific province of the normal school. 

The logical mission of the normal school is to supplement the 
scholastic agencies which are so generously provided in a public 
way with a definite preparation for teachers who are to engage in 
the immediate service of the State. It is a technical school with a 
professional purpose. It is in no sense a college preparatory school 
per se nor ought it to be such. Unless in accord with a private 
obligation unwisely contracted by the State and which can not be 
avoided, the student who upon graduation intends at once to enter 
a college has no business there. Otherwise the clamorous protest 
against subsidy, extravagance and unfair discrimination by the 
State, which has been so often urged on the part of other schools, 
is well taken and deserves respectful attention; while at the same 
time it is logically safe to assume for the normal school itself that 
in the long run divided interest in operation can result in but little 
more than mediocrity of product. Clearly then, in my opinion, the 
normal school should devote itself to the prosecution of its own 
peculiar and appropriate business and neither borrow trouble about 
nor seek to interfere in the established business of secondary schools. 

But what is this characteristic business and how shall it definitely 
discharge its bond? In the first place, save within very modest 
limits and covering an innocent range, the normal school has no 
valid claim to pose as an institution for experiment. It should be 
of all things a school of positive and well settled convictions based 
upon respectable experience and the common agreement of educa- 
tional authority. Its pupils have the right to demand that in mat- 
ters relating to their future profession they be made familiar in 
the quickest time and most thorough manner with what mankind 
has declared to be the truth. Excessive experimentation enfeebles 
the object of the normal school, and is either an affectation of con- 
tempt for the conclusions of philosopfiic predecessors or a wasteful 
expenditure of time and energy in seeking to acquire at first-hand 
the legacy to which we are entitled by inheritance. Let experi- 
mentation proceed by all means but elsewhere, in its own name, 
under suitable auspices and for its own definite purposes. The 
normal school is only interested in its final issues. In its processes 
it has no concern. 



1906] THE NORMAL SCHOOL 61 

In the seconcPplace the normal school was not ordained to herald 
new departures. It should be essentially a conservative force in 
education. While viewing with the fullest sympathy whatever 
honestly aims to advance the cause of youthful training, it should 
sit in quiet judgment until its superiority as a means has been fully 
proved. It should be the safe and consistent depository of all that 
■experience has demonstrated to be the best in the science of ele- 
mentary education, nor allow itself to be betrayed by fakirs and 
charlatans in pedagogy. Its function is hardly that of leadership in 
the system of the State, for that would be a task which might 
defeat its own accomplishment. The assumption of leadership by 
the normal school as it might individually construe leadership 
would be too likely to result in a most unhappy and chaotic spec- 
tacle. But to keep well abreast of the system, to assist in its devel- 
opment and to be its index and interpreter should be its duty and 
■design. 

Permit me now to mention some of the technical and particular 
purposes which in my judgment the normal school as a social agent 
IS under obligations to fulfil. These purposes are never independent 
and distinct from one another but blend into a certain composite 
kind of product which g^ives its character to the school. I shall 
make no attempt to speak of these purposes in the order of their 
importance because they are all of such importance that degrees 
of comparison are immaterial. 

In the first place it should provide for its pupils an environment 
of cultivation and refinement. There should be schoolrooms scrupu- 
lously clean, well ordered and well lighted. There should be excel- 
lent furniture, comfortable and well kept. No evidence of disrepair 
should be permitted to exist. There should be an unmistakable 
flavor of the genuinely artistic everywhere. There should be choice 
pictures on tastefully tinted walls. There should be plants and 
flowers in abundance. There should be works of art. There should 
"be the best of music. The most distinguished speakers and readers 
should be heard. There should be carefully selected books and 
magazines, easy of access, with skilful persons tO' advise and assist 
in their use. There should be well dressed teachers, deeply appreci- 
ative of all these things, to emphasize their significance in a thou- 
sand different ways. Every graduate from such a school should 
"become an apostle of beauty and cleanliness and taste in the world. 
Scholarship is of course important ; knowledge a factor indispen- 
sable; but these are things of the intellect and intellect alone is a 
cold, barren and unproductive influence in which the real strength 



62 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

of a great teacher may not even chiefly exist. In t*ith few teachers 
fail because they do not know enough. Mere information when 
needed is so easy to obtain, and its mere possession is oftentimes 
so useless when acquired that he who ceases with the effort to 
impart it and thinks his labor done _will accomplish but little for 
the 20th century school. His actual mission has only just com- 
menced. Unless he can direct, transform and galvanize the intel- 
lectual power developed in the conscious effort after information^ 
into that other and emotional power which can understand those 
higher forms of expression in which the great leaders of human 
evolution have revealed themselves, he has fallen far short of what 
his own ideals should be. To do these things is not an easy task 
nor is it reducible to formal rules. We may only say that the 
product is a flower which blossoms''''--Sweetly in self-activity, self- 
interpretation and self-expression which may be stimulated into 
fragrant growth in multitudinous ways but only by him into the 
fabric of whose being have been woven the bright enduring threads 
of high artistic vision. All the work of the normal school, then,, 
and every phase of its daily life should be strongly tinctured with 
the artistic element and its moral and ethical concomitants. Every 
student should above all things be ordained to preach the gospel 
of culture and right living. 

In the second place the normal school should create and main- 
tain a spirit of high professionalism. This it must insist upon 
securing. Without this it has no stock in trade and is liable to 
and deserving of impeachment as a pretender and a fraud. By a 
spirit of professionalism I mean an exalted sense of the nature of 
that engagement to which the school, its faculty and its students 
have subscribed. I mean the sentiment of earnestness and devotionc 
in the labor of preparation for a chosen service and a vivid com- 
prehension of what that service is. I mean a lofty conception of 
duty in the premises and a singleness of purpose in fulfilling it. 
I mean ambition to excel in the mastery of its technic. I mean a 
high ideal of the noblesse oblige of this profession and an honest 
acceptance of its claims. The spirit of professionalism is ^'^^ z 
thing of books alone. It can not be communicated by merely aca- 
demic culture. It is lifeless yet. It is born of reflection in the dee]> 
and silent recesses of the self. It is inspired by a contemplative 
purpose in the presence of overmastering excellence.^ It is the 
yearning to understand and emulate the greatness of a superior 
model. And so to accomplish this result the normal school must 
employ as teachers superlative men and women of profound cul- . 



J906] THE NORMAL SCHOOL 63 

ture, broad of outlook and experience, of reverent mind, magnetic 
xjf character, devoted in purpose, whose principle of action is com- 
prehended in the language of St Paul, " This one thing I do." 

In the third place it is not only the duty of the normal school to 
■give viewpoint and perspective and to awaken a proper attitude 
toward the profession of teaching but also to emphasize the simple 
psychological laws of presentation and control, and, through method 
in type form, to elicit a keen analytic treatment of subject-matter. 
But for psychology in the abstract as a topic in the normal school 
I have little regard. In general, as currently conducted, it has 
slight practical bearing upon the matters in hand, and when treated 
elaborately it is one of the most unproductive subjects in the cur- 
riculum. Likewise I have fully as little regard for claptrap method 
in the form of devices and taught slanderously in method's name. 
The graduates of secondary schools, by virtue of their own con- 
scious life thus far, are in possession already of a vast fund of 
psychological information, unrecognized as such perhaps and un- 
classified surely, but which when need arises can be easily and 
quickly marshaled into form ; and with the complicated notaiion of 
psychology they have, I take it, little real concern. So, too, a 
method studiously arranged and decorated in detail for another's 
xise and presented as a thing apart, is apt to be a dead and pulse- 
less piece of juggling. Formal method should be an affair of 
broad and generous boundaries and should deal with ample sources 
and with liberal aims. The details of method and the use of means 
is rather a matter of earnest apprenticeship to a v/ise and skilful 
teacher, who knows the canons of the art with which he deals, can 
communicate something of that skill unto his follower and has a 
sympathetic interest in its development. These details should be 
the expression of individuality striving along right lines. Therein 
is comprised the alchemy which transforms the plodding effort to 
remember and imitate into brilliant industry through the use of 
brains. I have no hesitation whatever in declaring that the depart- 
ment of methods with its single teacher, covering in full particulars 
the entire field of elementary instruction, which has, been a long 
tradition now happily disappearing in the normal school, with all 
its fussiness and its waste of energy at the pencil's point, is a 
delusion and a snare — an abomination in the sight of 20th century 
progress. The normal school has greater things than these to do. 

In the fourth place it is the business of the normal school to 
familiarize its pupils with the latest manifestations of educational 
thought and to vitalize their interest greatly in those considerations 



64 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

which are bound to modify the immediate future of the common 
schools as agents of social preservation as well as social advance- 
ment. It must teach the urgent necessity of physical culture in 
order that the race may live and to arrest the rapid physical deteri- 
oration which always accompanies material prosperity, and which 
makes it difficult if not impossible to find a child of the fourth or 
fifth generation of parents wholly reared in towns and cities. In 
child study, among other things, it must unfold the philosophy of 
play in all its forms as a coordinator of mental and bodily powers, 
the promoter of energy and strength of character, the developer 
of executive capacity and the revealer of individual responsibility. 
It must impress the claims of representative art including music as 
among the highest modes of self-expression, with its capacity to 
make the child observant, to excite his originality, to set astir his 
imaginative judgment, to inspire in him sublimer thoughts, to en- 
large his bounds of happiness and to discover him unto himself. 
It must set forth clearly the scope and function of natuje study 
and teach that human life is vastly enriched and sweetened and 
invigorated, not so much by the school man's knowledge of, as by 
an intimate personal acquaintance with the outward forms of 
nature ; that the love of nature must be the incentive in seeking 
for information concerning her and that a revelation of the love- 
liness, the purity, the gentleness and the grandeur of her forces 
must precede the classification of her phenomena. It should in- 
struct in the utility of the school garden and of every other recog- 
nized expedient which may stimulate an interest in the teeming 
life of Mother Earth and an appreciation of the useful and beautiful 
things, both animate and inanimate, that abound in the great free 
out-of-doors — that ultimate storehouse of strength and happiness, 
that treasury of vigor and renewal for all humanity. 

It should lay particular emphasis upon the industrial tendency of 
the times. The irresistible bent of modern psychology is toward 
the conclusion that mental processes are based upon and conditioned 
by the processes of sense and that the intellectual fabric is erected 
upon and bililt up through the physical; that thinking, even of the 
most abstract kind, is in a very large degree dependent, both re- 
motely and immediately, upon a happy adjustment of nerves^ 
muscles and stimuli ; that sense training is always a prerequisite to 
the highest form of intellectual education and a necessary accompan- 
iment to it everywhere. This belief has already materially modi- 
fied the character of pedagogical practice. It is chiefly responsible 
for what we are pleased to call the " new education." Out of it has 



1906] THE NORMAL SCHOOL 65 

been developed the firmly established educational doctrine which 
expresses itself in the maxim '* Learn to do by doing." From it the 
methods which we call '' laboratory " and " library " derive their 
force. There is scarcely a phase of the teacher's experience which 
has not felt its influence. In it we may find a reason for the rapid 
growth of the kindergarten idea ; for the greatly changed and better 
methods of primary instruction,; for the introduction of nature study 
in schools ; for the attention being paid to the cultivation of music ; 
for the care bestowed upon training in form, color and drawing ; for 
inductive processes generally; and for the establishment of manual 
training departments. 

In all these matters to which I am alluding other considerations 
besides sense training, and many of them complex, are involved, but 
fundamentally in them' all sense training and sense control are of 
vital concern as a means to an end. They are all, pedagogically 
speaking, along the same general line, and we have the same grounds 
for questioning the efficacy of any one of them for the purpose in- 
tended in education that we have for questioning the efficacy of 
manual training. In teaching circles much is said about correla- 
tion, which simply means the centralizing of knowledge gained from 
several sources and bringing it to bear upon the act of apperceiving 
those impressions which are gained from some additional source. 
Correlation is important in theory and in practice confessedly good. 

Manual training does a work similar to this in its own peculiar 
field. It trains the senses and what is more to the point it coordi- 
nates them toward a common aim and as this training grows into 
handicraft the senses are habitually brought into focus so as to be 
most effectually employed upon the object in view. This coordina- 
tion of the sensor and motor systems in any exhibition of handicraft 
skill has a distinct and important bearing upon the power of exact 
thought. There exists a close mutual relation between the ability 
to think accurately and to perform skilfully. It is safe to say that 
the man who thinks with exactness will usually be found in posses- 
sion of some handicraft which he enjoys and which he is able to 
practise with skill. The most exact thinkers in the world are the 
great scientists who are recognized as authorities ; and it is signifi- 
cant to remember that each one of these must have become expert 
in some one or more branches of physical manipulation and that it 
was by and through this expertness that he became entitled to his 
eminence. 

If there is anything at all in this theory then there is cause for 
claiming the assistance of manual training as an economical factor 
in that which every school engages to accomplish — the cultivation 



66 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

of true processes of thought. But the essential element in handi- 
craft which makes for better thinking is skill and it should be so 
conducted that skill may be the outcome. This accords with the 
admitted principle that instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, 
language and all the subjects which have direct relation to the com- 
mon arts of human life, is comparatively valueless unless it results 
in accuracy and facility in actual use and practice. 

Another feature of the question also which deserves consideration 
by the normal school is its social aspect. There is reason to fear 
that among our boys and girls is found an increasing disposition to 
shrink from the performance of what we call the " humble duties " 
of life. The situation is already serious and the responsibility of 
the teacher in expounding the dignity of human labor is becoming 
heavier every day. Now there is nothing which dignifies the labor 
of the hands so much as skill, for skill demonstrates that the " brain 
of labor is stronger than its muscles." Let the normal school do 
what it can to promulgate the doctrine of industrial training as a 
means of dignifying the labor of the hands and making it a less 
repulsive thing to our young men and women; let it contradict the 
notion which the college fetish is likely to invoke, that education in 
itself is aristocratic, and dwell with greater force upon the aristoc- 
racy of usefulness ; let it propagate the sentiment among its pupils 
and by them throughout society, that a lady should lose no caste 
when presiding in person over her own kitchen and that a gentleman 
is a gentleman none the less when he wears a workman's blouse. 

All these things and more of corresponding tenor the normal 
school must do specifically and well. Not for them but for lack of 
them must it apologize, for it is a prompter behind the wings, and 
these are of the things which dress the stage and animate the players 
in the great drama of expanding youthful life. The denouement of 
the drama in which it takes a little part should be a wider cultivation 
and a more versatile power in a wiser, better, happier race. 

But the normal school, unfortunately perhaps, from the nature of 
its organization, support and control is peculiarly exposed to certain 
ills which are not organic but functional, which may not develop at 
all, but which if permitted to do so and to become chronic will surely 
terminate in disease and impair its health and efficiency. 

I The normal school is subject to divided authority and even the 
Tiighest courts have not been unanimously agreed upon the exact 
location of the dividing line. One side of this twofold authority 
makes education a business and the other side has business of another 
kind. This division is not resfrettable so long as both sides unite 



1Q06] THE NORMAL SCHOOL 6/ 

with a singleness of motive. But when the contrary happens as it 
sometimes has — when open hostihty or lack of concord exists — 
the peace and progress of the school are seriously menaced. 

2 The normal school is compelled to feed at the public crib and 
may conceivably suffer from ungenerous portions. This is flagrantly 
true in states which could be mentioned. In our own State also it 
has been true although it must in fairness be conceded that with a 
field less comprehensive and more conformable to its purpose the 
New York State normal school is by no means a starveling. 

3 At first glance the normal school would seem to present an 
eleemosynary aspect. This is not real however, although it has 
"been the occasion of many gibes. For the normal school to yield 
assent in any way to such a claim would be a most unwarrantable 
and dangerous thing to do. It should not be thought of as in any 
sense a cheap school for impecunious people. A purely business 
principle is involved — a grub stake proposition — and the State as 
the party of the first part should extend the privilege of the contract 
only to those whose health, energy, intelligence, adaptability and 
character are a reasonable guaranty that a profitable dividend shall 
be returned. 

4 The normal school, in some slight part at least, is a political 
institution with patronage to dispense. No matter how deeply 
impressed with the importance of its mission and its duty in the 
realm of education the locality which has urged and secured the act 
•of its establishment may profess to be, that locality is more deeply 
impressed with the prospect, of material gain. The normal school 

. is a productive institution of va'st consequence to a little town. A 
host of beneficiaries colonize about it and are not always free from 
selfish promptings or unwilling to sacrifice the remoter interests of 
the State to the nearer ones at home. Its faculty room might be- 
come a pleasant and convenient asylum for representatives of 
decayed and needy families in the place. Great numbers of students 
are supposed to be desirable because each of these would leave some 
hundreds of dollars in circulation thereabout ; and therefore great 
numbers of students might be enticed upon various illegitimate pre- 
texts or false pretenses for which the State could not stand soonsor. 
Then, too, its maintenance funds might be diverted or squandered in 
divers public-spirited ways to serve the local welfare. And- that 
these things are not allowed to happen is sure to leave some spirits, 
notwithstanding their more thoughtful judgment, disappointed and 
resentful. It is the bounden duty of the State, in all matters per- 
taining to the normal school, to post conspicuously before the eyes 
of greed the peremptory legend, "Hands off." 



68 44'^^^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

Such is the mission and such the handicap of normal schools as I 
conceive them. With their mission fostered and their handicaps 
removed or forced to be inoperative, with their place defined and 
unworthy competition made of no avail, with a student body more" 
homogeneous and a field less overgrown, with classes more befitting 
their facilities, with college and high school prejudice removed, with 
their energies all bent toward their distinctive purposes, their present 
day function will be of greater usefulness and their future more 
unchallenged than their past. 

PROBLEMS OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 

PRES. NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER LL.D., COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 

By every token education is a dominant interest with the nations 
of today. Education in the large sense of the word, not mere school 
teaching, is a chief charge upon the public treasuries everywhere ; 
it is debated as earnestly, indeed sometimes as violently, as was 
philosophy by the Athenians of Pericles or the rights of man by the 
frequenters of the salons in the days of Diderot and Rousseau. Since 
home rule, no public question has so shaken England as that of edu- 
cation. Prussia, after a violent struggle, has enacted a new ele- 
mentary school law ; and it would not be hard to prove that the 
present controversy between church and state in France is a sequel 
of the educational debates of a quarter century ago. 

It is by no means clear to every one that the fundamental assump- 
tion which underlies this present day interest in education is correct. 
This tacit assumption is that as children are trained, so will they 
remain ; that what they learn they will remember and use. One 
social reform movement after another seeks to make use of the 
schools, because all social reform movements make this assumption. 
Yet the shocking and vulgar English that one hears on every hand 
is too often spoken by men and women who as boys and girls were 
taught the spoken and written language correctly. From 1850 to 
1880 the elementary schools of France were almost wholly under 
clerical, or at least religious, influence ; and yet it was the boys there 
trained who, as men, made possible by their voices and their votes 
the successful attack on religion in the schools which made Paul 
Bert famous. Evidently there are some missing factors that must 
be reckoned with. The parable of the sower might have given a 
hint as to where to look for an explanation of some obvious facts, 
but it has not often been resorted to for that purpose. Not all seed 



3906] PROBLEMS OF EDUCATIOXAL ADMIXISTRATION 69 

falls into good ground and brings forth fruit ; the wayside, the stony 
places, and the thorns still exist in human minds and in human 
hearts. 

Quite apart, however, from the dubious character of this under- 
lying assumption, the dominant interest in education remains an 
uncontested fact. 

To meet the cost and to control the policy of education have almost 
everywhere become, at least in large part, functions of government. 
In a democracy a government, to be truly representative, must work 
for the accomplishment of a people's highest ideals, and it must also 
reflect the public opinion of the state or nation whose government 
it is. The more highly civilized men are, the more closely will these 
two aims harmonize. 

Just here lies the first and chief problem of all educational admin- 
istration. It must, to be genuinely efficient, seek the highest aims; 
to be representative and to gain support, it must reflect public 
opinion. To do both at once is not always easy; sometimes perhaps 
it is not even possible. It is plain, however, that within certain 
limits men wish and expect schools to do better for their children 
than they have been able to do for themselves. At intervals a 
parent is found who thinks — or at least, who says — that what was 
good enough for him ought to be good enough for his children ; but 
he is an exception. In the vast majority of cases, parents wish the 
very best for their children, regardless of what their own experience 
may have been. A community of Fagins would hardly maintain a 
school system whose aim was to turn their children into "artful 
dodgers." On the contrary, they would be quite likely to insist on 
the teaching of the Shorter Catechism, perhaps even on " scientific 
temperance." 

The farsighted administrator of edrcation recognizes these facts 
and makes his appeal to the higher and larger nature of man. We 
Americans have not been generally considered an idealistic people ; 
yet nowhere in the world has a truly spiritual view and interpreta- 
tion of education been so influential as among us. For 40 years 
every important leader of American educational thought has been 
expounding education as a phase of spiritual evolution, and today 
that philosophy is absolutely controlling, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, in tens of thousands of American schoolrooms. It vitalizes 
the kindergartens and the elementary schools in everv corner of the 
land. It reaches up into secondary schools and occasionally even 
into a college. It is the one true view, and upon it as a cornerstone 
educational administration must build. 



70 44'i"J^ UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [cCTOKER 26 

This point is mentioned first, because not infrequently educational 
administration comes to be looked on as an end in itself, instead of 
merely as a means to an end. The end is the ideal aim of educa- 
tion, not the machinery by which that aim is sought. Some wit 
has defined administration as doing extremely well what should not 
be done at all. That wit is in the way of being an anarchist, but 
when one sees the elaborate and costly machines that are sometimes 
built to crack eggs with very thin shells, he feels like urging the 
wit on just a little. 

In my view, therefore, the first and chief problem of educational 
administration, whether of a school system or of a single institution, 
is to seize intelligent hold of the conception of education as a phase 
of spiritual evolution of the individual and of the race, and to labor 
earnestly and unceasingly for the support, the extension, and the 
effective working out of this conception. This conception of edu- 
cation will vitalize all administrative machinery. Without it, the 
administrative procedure becomes dull, routine, and sterile. 

Let us fix our eyes for a moment upon our own State. It is truly 
an empire. Within its borders are gathered 8,000,000 human beings, 
coming themselves or through ancestry, from every corner of the 
earth. All races, all tongues, all forms of religious and political 
belief, all sorts and kinds of industry and commerce are represented 
among them. The small farmer, living remote from telegraph or 
railroad, and the captain of industry or finance with his hand and 
eye on the markets and exchanges of the world, are alike on our 
rolls of citizenship. Guiding and controlling this composite body 
politic is a set of traditions, ideas, and ideals, which are recognized 
everywhere as American, grown in our case out of Dutch and 
English beginnings. Our body politic, huge and composite as it is, 
and various and complicated as are its interests, is a political unity 
and a political unit. It is a commonwealth, a State, with its share 
of American sovereignty. 

This body politic, among other things, sets itself the task of edu- 
cating its children. A system of educational administration is at 
once called into being; and it is only the administrator who under- 
stands these presuppositions, who can be trusted successfully to 
solve its problems. 

Our State has an educational system which is made up of three 
elements : 

The first element is the schools, institutions, and undertakings of 
every form and type which are supported by public tax and which 
are immediately controlled by public officials. 



1906] PROBLEMS OF EDUCATIOXAL ADMINISTRATION Jl 

The second element is the schools, institutions, and undertakings 
of every form and type, which, while neither supported by public 
tax nor immediately controlled by public officials, are established 
and maintained by the State's authority and permission, granted 
either by specific legislative enactment or in pursuance of general 
provisions of law. Both these elements of the educational system 
are public in the full sense of the word. They represent the public 
judgment, and base their existence directly on public authority ex- 
ercised through government. The fact that one of these elements is 
tax-supported and the other not, that one is directly controlled by 
public officials and the other not, simply indicates that the State 
.«?tands in a somewhat different relation to each, not that it stands 
in a definite relation to the one and has no relation to the other. In 
a civilized community a private university, for example, ought to 
be as unthinkable as a private legislature or a private court of 
appeals. 

The third element in the educational system is, however, private. 
It includes the schools, institutions, and undertakings which are 
without specific governmental sanction or authority, but which 
exist because they are not forbidden. They fall within the sphere 
of liberty, not within the sphere of government, which two spheres 
added together make up the entire activity of the State. These are 
the private educational institutions and undertakings of our State; 
for while the State through its government holds itself free to 
enter upon any part of the educational field, it puts no obstacle in 
the way of its citizens doing the same thing, whether as individuals 
or as groups. 

Perhaps the remainder of the entire problem of educational ad- 
ministration in the State of New York may be summed up by 
saying that it is to secure the highest efficiency of all three of these 
elements in the educational system and their increasing cooperation. 
The ways and means by which the Department of Education will 
proceed to secure efficiency and cooperation will differ according 
as its efforts are directed toward one or another of the three classes 
of institutions. With the third or private element in the State's 
educational system, the influence of the Department of Education 
will be exercised by persuasion, by conveying information, and by 
holding up ideals. With the first and second elements, the Depart- 
ment of Education may deal more directly in ways which are fully 
set out in the statutes of the State and in ordinances adopted in 
conformity thereto by the Regents of the University of the State of 
New York. Within the limits of the class of institutions first 



72 441'H UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

named, those supported by public tax, the authority of the Depart- 
ment of Education is direct and unquestioned. 

It is of prime importance to recognize and to compel recognition 
of the fact that each one of these three elements in the State's edu- 
cational system owes a responsibility to the public. Because a 
school is a purely private undertaking, even if it is conducted en- 
tirely or largely for gain, it should not be overlooked or neglected. 
The State's officials may not compel improvements, but they should 
not withhold counsel and stimulus. The same may be said in 
regard to the second element in the educational system. The ways 
in which the State's officials may directly control the working of 
these institutions are not many. Nevertheless, these institutions 
constitute a numerous and important body of educational workers 
and they represent a powerful educational opinion. 

When any exercise of the central authority is contemplated, how- 
ever, the fact will always be borne in mind that local self-govern- 
ment is an element of prime importance in the institutions of our 
people. Those schools will flourish most vigorously and will exer- 
cise the widest influence, which respond to local needs and which 
are under local or neighborhood control. The wise central ar.thor- 
ity, therefore, seeks not to supplant local initiative and local 
control, but to develop, to strengthen, and when necessary, to sup- 
plement them. It would doubtless be possible to secure a very 
desirable efficiency and a very undesirable uniformity in the schools 
of the State by vigorous exercise of central authority, but these 
schools would cease in large measure to be truly public schools. 
They would cease to represent the best public opinion of their local- 
ities and they would fail to enlist warm public sympathy and sup- 
port. They would seem to be alien things grafted on to a 
community's life, and not the full and rich flower of that life. 
Sometimes it is necessary to bear with a temporary evil in order 
to secure a larger and permanent good. There are many short cuts 
to reform by exercise of autocratic power. Reforms autocratically 
effected do not, however, often last long. When the support of 
authority is withdrawn, the fabric erected by its aid falls to the 
ground. 

On the other hand, it must never be forgotten that in addition 
to being residents of a locality, we are citizens of a State. It is to 
the sovereignty of that State that we appeal, and not to any power 
legally inherent in the residents of a locality, when we ask for a 
public tax to support public education. It is the State, therefore, 
in all its r.nity, which is underneath and behind every tax-supported 



1906] PROBLEMS OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION ^T^ 

educational institution within its bounds. The State's authority has 
l>een invoked to bring the school into being- and the State's author- 
ity must be invoked to keep it efficient. It is the citizenship of the 
entire State which suffers through the illiteracy, the ignorance, or 
the vice- of a part, of its citizenship. It is of little value to the resi- 
dents of one county to be intelligent, law-abiding, and eager in 
support of schools, if their influence is counterbalanced by that of 
the residents of another county who are in large part illiterate, 
boisterous, and contemptuous of education. 

Just here lies one of the difficult tasks of educational statesman- 
ship. The administrator must know when it is wise for central 
authority to be exercised directly and when it is wise to withhold 
its exercise that local initiative and control may be developed and 
strengthened. In a sense, communities may be said to be wards of 
the State. The State fixes the minimum 'standard of scholastic ex- 
cellence and the minimum standard of efficiency in every part of 
the school's work. When the locality maintains or surpasses that 
minimum standard, the State may well refrain from interference 
with its activities. When, on the other hand, a community falls 
short of such standards" then the State's officials must vigorously 
intervene to bring the schools of that locality up to the mark. 

A prime consideration in dealing with the efficiency of an edu- 
cational system is the material factor, finance. Is a state, or a com- 
munity, raising enough money for schools to provide buildings in 
sufficient number and of proper character, to secure adequate and 
properly prepared teachers, to maintain an effective system of 
supervision? All over this State, particularly in the urban com- 
munities, the expenditures for public education are very large ; yet 
lie would be a bold man who would say that our schools are in all 
respects well provided for. Even when the school buildings are 
sufficient in number and of proper character, the salaries of teachers 
are on a scale that suggests missionary work rather than profes- 
sional service requiring careful preparation and long special train- 
ing. Some day we Americans will have to face the question 
whether under existing systems of taxation and the distribution of 
taxes, communities, particularly the larger ones, can really afford 
to give their children the education which present day standards 
suggest and demand. Few states can follow the example of New 
Jersey, which out of the surplus revenue received from franchise 
and corporation taxes, is able to make allotments to counties and 
towns in aid of the schools. The readjustment which must surely 
■come before there can be any really important increase in teachers' 



74 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

salaries generally, will, in my judgment, come more quickly if we 
fix our attention on a wider and better preparation for the work of 
teaching rather than agitate for larger salaries regardless of 
standards of professional preparation. To be worth more is the 
easiest way to get more. In every other branch of professional 
activity, more adequate preparation and demonstrated success are 
almost a guaranty of increased compensation. Why should teach- 
ing be a permanent exception to this rule? 

The wise administrator of education will study carefully the 
financial aspect of his problem. He will examine and consider the 
sources from which the revenues for education are derived, and he 
will know when those sources are yielding all that can equitably be 
demanded of them. He will temper the insistence of his demands 
upon the Legislature with reasonableness. He will insist upon that 
economy which is becoming in the expenditure of all public funds. 
Mr Gladstone when Chancellor of the Exchequer was not afraid 
to say that economy was the first and great article of his financial 
creed. In an impressive passage Mr Lecky once wrote : 

Nations seldom realize till too late how prominent a part a sound 
system of finance holds among the vital elements of national stability 
and well being; how few political changes are worth purchasing by 
its sacrifice ; how widely and seriously human happiness is afifected 
by the downfall or the perturbation of national credit, or by exces- 
sive, injudicious, and unjust taxation. 

In our zeal for education we must not overlook the dictates of 
a sound system of public finance. The form of our national and 
State government does not lend itself to scientific budgets or to 
any other than a haphazard system of financial administration. We 
are far behind England, and also behind France and Germany, in 
this respect. We take little thought of tomorrow and not too much 
thought of today. Get all you can and spend all you get, is a 
popular maxim; but it is not a wise or a statesmanlike one. Educa- 
tional administration in pursuit of a high purpose can not adopt 
it as a controlling principle. The material resources of the people 
and the equitable distribution of public burdens among them are 
always to be reckoned with. 

It is part of the business of educational administration, more- 
over, to protect and honor that elusive but all important thing called 
personality. Thomas Arnold, who possessed it in high degree and 
whose fame rests upon his possession of it, once wrote in quest 
of a teacher and said : " I want a man who is a Christian and a 
gentlp'nan, and one who has common sense and understands bovs^ 



1906] PROBLEMS OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 75 

I prefer activity of mind and interest to high scholarship ; for the 
one may be acquired far more easily than the other. Then he 
should have sufficient vigor of mind and thirst for knowledge to 
persist in adding t6 his ovv^n stores v^ithout neglecting the full im- 
provement of those whom he is teaching." We can not have too 
many such men and women as Dr Arnold describes in the teaching 
profession. It is farthest from my thought to decry scholarship,. 
but scholarship, like charity, sometimes covers a multitude of sins. 
It is one, but not the sole, qualification of a teacher. In attempting 
to do evenhanded justice among a large number of candidates and 
to bring order out of chaos in the appointment and advancement 
of teachers, systems of competitive examination have been devised 
which must be watched with scrupulous care, lest they defeat their 
purpose. Personality will often irradiate a schoolroom and touch 
every mind and heart in it, when mere scholarship would chill and 
repel. No administrative excuse can be accepted in extenuation of 
the neglect of personality as a factor in the equipment of the 
teacher. If personality be neglected, the schools will soon become 
treadmills. 

Yet another task of the administrator is to keep steadily before 
his constituency and before the public at large the conception of 
teaching as a professional service rendered not only to the particu- 
lar school or college, but to the people as a whole. Teachers are 
public servants in every sense, and are entitled to regard and esteem 
as such. To treat a teaching position as a job, to be bestowed upon 
the needy or handed out to a friend competent or incompetent, is 
to debase and degrade education. Only a little less humiliating is 
the notion that " home talent " is to be preferred in the service of 
the schools, regardless of relative merit. This notion is especially 
comic in a country like our own, with a population of unusual 
instability, where almost every other person one meets has recently 
come from somewhere else. It is not many months since the city 
of Baltimore — prosperous, intelligent, the seat of a university of 
world-wide fame — lost the services of a most competent school 
officer because of the vigorous outcry of the newspapers and the 
small politicians against an " outsider." Their conception of" the 
post to be filled was that it was a job, not a place of professional 
dignity and responsibility. These vagaries will be outgrown as our 
civilization matures, and as the teaching profession comes to take 
its proper place not only on the lips but in the minds and hearts 
of the general public. 



y^ 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

The educational administrator has before him a statesman's task. 
~He deals day by day with great human forces and with interests 
of surpassing importance. His wisest work often produces little 
immediate result. He is building for the future and its hopes. If 
he is truly an educational administrator, not a tyro, he is not at 
sea drifting without chart or compass. He conceives education as 
a phase of spiritual evolution and as the means whereby the race 
perpetuates both its achievements and its ideals. By the standard 
of that conception, he measures all his acts and policies. He bends 
every energy to secure fullest cooperation between every element 
of the system or institution confided to his directing care,. and to 
make them all efficient in their several tasks. He studies the 
resources at his disposal and so orders them that the public gains 
the largest service at the least cost. He throws his protecting arms 
about personality whenever he finds it, and assists its free expres- 
sion and exercise. He teaches and illustrates in countless ways 
that teaching is truly a profession and that it may not be subordi- 
nated to selfish or partizan ends. He counsels, informs, and assists ; 
he never compels or commands, save as a last resort and when vital 
interests are endangered. He must be ready and willing to take 
responsibility. His only masters, under the law or his grant of 
authority, must be his reason and his conscience. 

COOPERATIVE FORCES IN EDUCATION 

RT. REV. MONSIGNOR M. J. LAVELLE V, G., NEW YORK 

On the principle that each one can contribute most to the fund 
of knowledge and wisdom this gathering is calculated to produce 
by speaking on the topic with which he is most thoroughly conver- 
sant, I address you today on one of the classes of schools, to which 
President Butler so eloquently alluded in his speech, the various 
educational forces that have grown up outside the excellent system 
devised and supported by the State; forces springing from warm 
hearts, fervid brains and generous hands ; of which some have 
guided, others have stimulated, and all have substantially aided the 
commonwealth in the wisest and noblest work ever undertaken by 
political government, that of enriching with education the homes 
and hearts of our American people. Let me hope that the subject 
will prove welcome, interesting and useful. 

On the one hand, we are all aware that our educational system, 
hke everything else, is capable of constant and great development; 
and we are not only willing but desirous to hear discussed all its 



1Q06] COOPER_\TIVK FORCES IN EDUCATION "JJ 

phases and possibilities. On the other hand, I am certain that those 
-engaged in the cooperative work have the highest respect and ad- 
miration for the public school system of the nation, and of this 
State in particular, which you so ably represent ; that they regard 
it as the great leveler, not down but up — as the great assimilator, 
taking the children of all the foreign climes who seek refuge on our 
:shores from oppression or from hopeless indigence, and molding 
them into that noblest type of manhood that the world has thus 
iar seen, the independent, industrious, thrifty, self-reliant, intelli- 
gent, courteous American citizen. 

By no means all our education is, or has ever been, organized 
and maintained by the State. To begin with, the State of New 
York, which stands at the head of American commonwealths for 
aid given to primary and secondary education, has done much less 
than an equal proportion for the large body of imiversities and 
colleges which complete our educational system, and are the foun- 
dations of our technical and professional life. These are almost 
•entirely the offspring of private munificence and enterprise, and 
must be classed amongst the first and most important of our coop-- 
■erative forces. 

Then we have a large body of academies and high schools, 500 
in all. I think, some of them incorporated and reporting annually 
to the Regents of the State University. Besides these, there are 
many private elementary and select schools, founded frequently for 
the training of the children of the wealthy, many of which are 
'doing excellent work of cooperation' in the cause of universal 
■education. 

Some of these private enterprises have gained the good will of 
the people to a remarkable degree. I wish to cite two in particular. 
The first is that fine school in New York city, founded in 1854, by 
one of the ablest, most successful, most useful and intelligently 
philanthropic men that adorn the history of this Emipire State : the 
man who built the first locomotive on this continent, who rolled the 
first steel beams for building construction, who first successfully 
applied anthracite to the puddling of iron; who was the greatest 
propagator of our telegraph system, an originator of our ocean 
cables, an able developer of our canal system, the self-made scholar, 
the sage, the lover of his kind — Peter Cooper. In the Cooper 
Union, dedicated forever to the union of art and science in their 
application to the useful purposes of life, are free schools for paint- 
ing, wood engraving, telegraphy, photograohy. mathematics, stenog- 
raphy, typewriting, chemistry, engineering and natural philosophy. 



78 44'i'H UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

There are a debating club and a free reading room and library with 
520 periodicals and upwards of 40,000 volumes, frequented by 1500 
to 2000 people daily. The regular schools of science and of art 
teach upwards of 5000 students each year, molding them into pros- 
perous men and women. From their ranks have developed many 
of our most prominent citizens in all the walks of professional life. 
The Cooper Union has given us an immense lever for the public 
welfare, which we might never have possessed but for the generosity 
and the large hearted wisdom of its founder. To their credit be 
it said, Peter Cooper's family have always entered fully into the 
spirit of their father's great benefaction, and have added to it many 
things which have been constantly increasing its strength and its 
usefulness. 

The second example I wish to present is the work of that won- 
derful wizard of wealth accumulation, of industry, intelligence, fore- 
sight, generosity and public spirit, Andrew Carnegie. Not to men- 
tion his other many contributions to the interests of public education, 
we have his monumental gift of $5,200,000, donated to the city of 
New York for the establishment of public libraries. It is a great 
and remarkable instance of unselfishness and nobility of soul. It 
will immortalize, and it should, the name of the donor. But more 
remarkable still to my mind is the cooperation he was able to get 
from the city of New -York and from the Legislature and the Execu- 
tive of the State : the donation of the sites and the guaranty of fund.-; 
sufficient to maintain the libraries forever. I would not belittle the 
gift in any degree. And I certainly admire, as no doubt do all, Mr 
Carnegie's wisdom in imposing upon us the obligation of self-help, 
v.'hich is the best and most practical of all aids. Rut the gift is only 
a small fraction of the effort to which his generosity and wisdom 
stimulated us; showing that not only are our customs and laws, and 
the disposition of the public at large, favorable to individual enter- 
prise in eSucation, but that we are ready to applaud and assist 
largely private initiative when it comes to us at the psychological 
moment, in a way to touch us by its nobility, intelligence and daring. 

From these instances of private contributions to our educational 
forces we come to the Catholic school system, concerning which it 
can not be uninteresting for educators, both professional and official,, 
to know the magnitude, the methods, the motives and the hopes. 
There are in the State of New York 400 Catholic day schools with 
a total of 172,000 pupils, an annral expenditrre of $1,500,000, and 
an invested capital, for sites, buildings and appurtenances, of at 
least $25,000,000. These schools are entirely free. They are sup- 



igo6] COOPERATIVE FORCES IN EDUCATION Ji.) 

ported by the voluntary offerings of the Catholic people. They are 
thoroughly graded, well taught, rigidly examined. The course o£ 
studies runs parallel with that of the public school system, com- 
prising a period of eight years. Many of them are incorporated 
under the Regents. They are regularly inspected by duly appointed 
and carefully chosen superintendents, who are obliged to report the 
status and progress of each school to the central governing bodies, 
the Catholic school board in each locality. 

The teachers are the Christian brothers and other similar or- 
ganization^ of men, the sisters of the various religious communities 
and a large and constantly increasing body of young ladies and 
gentlemen. Every teacher must have a license from our school 
boards. Many possess also public school licenses, and there is a 
growing tendency to make all obtain this latter license, not because 
M-e regard the teachers as being now deficient, but because we wish 
the whole community to know that the teachers have passed all the 
ordeals and are equal to the best. They teach everything necessary 
to a thorough elementary education in secular branches, and besides 
they have daily lessons in Christian doctrine. Patriotism is con- 
stantly inculcated. The national hymns and anthems are frequently 
sung. All the national holidays are observed and explained. The 
flag, the symbol of liberty and human rights, is floated, honored and 
saluted. 

Although established directly for Catholic children, these schools 
are not exclusive. You would be surprised to know how frequently, 
at the request of the parents, they enrol Protestants, Hebrews and 
other non-Catholic children, and also boys and girls of the colored 
race. The success of these schools is very great. Frequently, when 
brought into competition with others, their children distance all com- 
petitors. Evefy year a large number of their New York girls pass 
the rigid examinations for the normal college. Many receive honor 
marks in these ordeals, and few ever fail. They have not made a 
practice of encouraging their boys to strive for the New York City 
College, not because they doubt its efficiency, but because few of 
these boys can afford to follow a professional career, and this esti- 
mable institution offers no special field of remunerative employment 
at the immediate close of its course of studies. 

But our boys are very popular with employers. Some time ago 
a gentleman who stands very high in the metropolitan business com- 
munity asked me for a boy from our Cathedral School (which 
numbers 1500 children), promising that the right sort of boy would 
liave a verv favorable career. I was much interested, because I 



8o 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

realized that the offer was both kind and advantageous. I spoke ta 
the principal, who, in turn, proposed the matter to the boys, singly^ 
beginning with the best, and going down the scale, as one after the 
other felt unable to grasp the opportunity. To my surprise, the 
principal reported that none of the boys of the senior class was 
willing to leave school before the end of the term; and, secondly, 
that all the boys had their places bespoken in advance and could not; 
accept the alluring proposition. I mentioned the incident to my 
household at home, and commented upon the fact, which only then; 
came to my mind, that our boys very rarely ask me to aid them in. 
the obtaining of employment. 

I might mention in passing that there is scarcely an office imagin- 
able which we priests are not called upon from time to time to per- 
form for the people. Among other things we are beset with re- 
quests for the obtaining of employment almost as though each one 
was the manager of an intelligence office. The facts in this particu- 
lar case gratified us very much, and as people in their egotism are- 
inclined to do, we accounted for them by supposing that our own 
school must be superior to all others. But the other day I found 
an article in one of the New York papers, which is so pertinent to 
the case and which taught me so much, that you will excuse me for 
quoting it. I have no intentions to father its reflections upon the 
results of public school training. I present it simply because it 
happens to establish my proposition that a great, useful and worthy- 
educational work is going on about you, of whose extent a few^. 
scarcely even its most ardent admirers, have an adequate conception.. 
This paper quotes the manager of a store which needs at this mo- 
ment 200 young men and women to start at salaries varying fronu 
$5 to $7 a week ; this, of course, to unexperienced, not tried, help.- 
Said this man : 

I was so discouraged with letters and application blanks written' 
by graduates from our public schools that I decided to try the paroch- 
ial schools. I went first to the priest in charge of the St Joseph's^ 
parochial school, 6th avenue and Waverly place. Father Spellman by 
name. I thought I would like to get boys from that parish because 
it is so close to the business section. Father Spellman was courteous, 
but he could -not oblige me. Every one of last June's graduates had' 
been placed in store or office, and every graduate in the class of 
June, IQ07, was spoken for by some business man in the Wall street 
or wholesale district. I am not a Catholic, but I believe in the old- 
fashioned three R system followed in the parochial schools. I sent 
two of my men to uptown parochial schools, and found the same 
conditions prevailing — every boy had a place waiting for him. 1 



1906] COOPERATIVE FORCES IN EDUCATION 81 

am a good American, too, but I must confess that the best boy for 
a business man to select today as a beginner is the lad who is fresh 
from these institutions with his common school education. He can 
not do gymnastics, he has never seen a pot of flowers, nor a bowl of 
goldfish on the window ledge of his schoolroom ; he can not cut out 
paper boats nor knit reins for his little brother, but he can write a 
legible hand, spell correctly and figure accurately. Furthermore, he 
regards his elders with respect, not as a joke. 

What is the motive of these schools? Why do people, not yet 
overburdened with this world's goods and keenly eager for the 
betterment of their condition, elect to support a voluntary system 
of education, after having paid their taxes to the regularly organ- 
ized system of the State? The answer is this. The Catholic schools 
are supported by a large body of earnest, sincere. God-fearing 
men, who believe in their faith as they do in their life ; who are 
anxious to see their faith stamped indelibly upon their children ; 
who fear that this faith and all faiths are liable to be weakened, if 
not lost, by an education purely secular; and who are convinced 
that by making this sacrifice of double taxation they are doing the 
very best possible for the welfare of religion and morality, and, at 
the same time, for the honor, exaltation and solidifying of those in- 
stitutions whose symbol is the royal red and the lily white and the 
azure blue of the stars and stripes. Why do they believe this? 
They dread, on principle, the education of the head without the 
heart. They see more vice than there should be about them, in 
high places and in low — drunkenness, licentiousness, dishonesty^ 
hate, with all its revolting sequels, divorce, disloyalty, anarchism,, 
faithlessness to trust. They remember the wave of true sentiment 
that swept the country at the death of President McKinley. 

They ascribe these conditions to the weakness of the fear and 
the love of God in the hearts of our people, and they wish to do 
all in their power for the solidifying of God's kingdom upon earth 
by the daily inculcation in the schools of the truths and the precepts 
of the Almighty. The Catholics do not stand alone in this practice. 
Many of the other denominations, notably the Lutherans and the 
Episcopalians, support schools of the same class and for the same 
reasons. All our public education was religious originally, and 
there is no evidence that it would, not be the same to the present day 
but for the difficulty of satisfying the many varieties of faith. Con- 
gress in the beginning, even before the adoption of the Constitution, 
intended that the schools should be religious. On the 13th of July, 
1787, Congress passed an act entitled " An ordinance for the gov- 



82 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

eniment of the territory northwest of the river Ohio " — the terri- 
tory which now comprises the states of Ohio, Itidiana, IlHnois, 
Michigan and Minnesota. In it we find these passages : 

No person demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner 
shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious 
sentiments, in said territories. There shall be neither slavery, nor 
involuntary servitude in said territory, otherwise than in punishment 
of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. Religion, 
morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and 
the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall 
forever be encouraged. 

The lawmakers are very careful in their language. In the first 
two sentences they are laying down the fundamental principle of 
all American freedom and prosperity — freedom of conscience and 
inalienable liberty. The third declaration is just the same as though 
they had stated that without religion, morality and knowledge good 
government and human happiness are impossible. Why then do 
they say, " Therefore schools and the means of education shall al- 
ways be encouraged," unless they meant that in the schools these 
three essentials should ever and always be taught? 

Furthermore, there is a very large body of people who would be 
glad to see religion restored to the public schools tomorrow, if they 
could solve the problem of satisfying the prejudices of all classes. 
I have attended conferences in New York at which this subject 
was discussed and every effort made to find a satisfactory solution 
of the problem. I remember som.e gatherings in particular, which 
show among other things how people are getting together in these 
times — in which were present clergymen representing Episco- 
palians, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Universalists, Lutherans, He- 
brews, as well as Catholics. There are no more honored names in 
the State than these which met -for friendly discussion on this point ; 
and they have not yet abandoned the hope of finding a key to the 
difficulty. This sentiment is not confined to clergymen. It per- 
vades our statesmen and a large number of our public men in 
general. I could make numerous citations to establish this fact, 
but I shall be content with one from a great paper in New York, 
whose gifted editor is not a thousand miles away at the present 
moment. The occasion was the occurrence of an alarming exhibi- 
tion of human depravity in a select residential district : 

The truth is that we are taking for grranted a moral intelligence 
that does not exist. Our whole machinery of education from the 
kindergarten to the university is perilously weak at this point. We 
have multitudes of youths, grown men and women, who have no 



3906] COOPERATIVE FORCES IN EDUCATION 83 

more intelligent sense of what is right and wrong than had so many 
Greeks at the time of Alcibiades. The great Roman Catholic Church 
is unquestionably right in the contention that the whole system as it 
now exists is morally a negation. 

It is worthy of remark also that the Catholic school system is not 
a mere device of the clergy. It has its roots deep down in the 
hearts of the people. Some, no doubt, can be found who are cold, 
indifferent or even averse to it. But the number of these is con- 
stantly increasing. I could not give clearer evidence of the popular 
opinion on this subject than the declaration of the first Catholic 
<!ongress, held in Baltimore in the year 1889, a convention composed 
of, presided over and addressed by representative laymen, dele- 
gates from all parts of the country, to the number of one thousand : 

We recognize, next in importance to religion itself, education as 
one of the chief factors in forming the character of the individual, 
the virtue of the citizen, and promoting the advance of true civili- 
zation. Therefore, we are committed to a sound, popular education, 
which demands not only the physical and intellectual, but also the 
moral and religious training of our youth. As in the State schools 
no provision is made for teaching religion, we must continue to sup- 
port our own schools, multiply and perfect colleges and universities 
already established and others, so that the benefits of a Christian 
-education may be brought within the reach of every Catholic child 
in these United States. 

I have dwelt upon this point to bring out the motive for Catholic 
schools — to make clear as possible what this motive is not, as well 
as what it is. It certainly is not contempt for universal education. 
Else, why the sacrifices that are made for the elementary Catholic 
schools, and why that munificent institution for adults on Lake 
Champlain, the Catholic Summer School of America, where the 
ablest -and best equipped leaders of Catholic thought are brought 
face to face with a cultured audience, to give their listeners the 
fruits of lifelong studies in those departments of science or letters 
in which they have become eminent? In this connection it is inter- 
esting to note the words written by Dr Orestes A. Brownson, that 
great Catholic layman, likened by many as an original thinker to 
Daniel Webster : 

We are decidedly in favor of free public schools for the children 
of the land, and we hold that the property of the State should bear 
the burden of educating the children of the State — the two great 
essential principles of the system which endear it to the hearts of the 
American people. 

This motive is not a carping criticism of our public school sys- 
tem. I say carping criticism, because, of course, the Catholic 



84 44'^'H UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 26 

schools imply a lack of complete satisfaction with the State educa- 
tional plan. There are two sorts of criticisms : the one an angel 
of light, the cause of nearly all the progress in the world, up- 
building, comforting, strengthening everything it touches, typified 
by the Archangel Raphael guiding Tobias on his way ; the other 
a demon from the pit, tearing down, destroying, upsetting. Its 
exponents are as numerous as the malicious cranks of the world, 
its prototypes being found in Dick Deadeye in the fleet, Thersites 
in the camp and Judas Iscariot at the festal board when honor was 
conferred uix)n his Master. This latter is what I call carping 
criticism, and we disclaim it in every particular. We love the public 
school system and we admire it. We follow its course of studies. 
We take advice and guidance from its leading officials. But we 
want something more for ourselves. We want the Christian doctrine 
taught every day systematically to our children. And we fondly 
believe that by following this course not only are we laboring for 
the best spiritual interests of the children, as we see them, but also 
that we are contributing a mighty force to the stability of the Re- 
public; by doing so much to effect that belief in God, and the 
honesty, loyalty, self-control and charity that flow therefrom, may 
not vanish from the face of the earth. 

What do promoters of religious schools ask of your honorable 
body and the public in general with regard to their schools? 

First, Knowledge. That you become aware of the work that is 
going on, its present magnitude, its large expenditures, its efficiency, 
its prospects of speedy development. 

Secondly, Respect for a work strictly within the projectors' legal 
rights, sustained by sacrifice, accom.plishing large results for God 
and country, and most useful to the public school system itself as 
a coadjutor and perhaps a spur. 

Thirdly, Friendship. The friendship which should exist between 
people whose aims, objects and methods are substantially the same. 
This has been growing very much especially during the past few 
years. May it become perfect and perpetual. 

Fourthly, Recognition. The Catholic schools number already 
172,000 pupils. All the other schools not under public control and 
support contain about 35,000. In a few years the Catholic schools 
will probably more than double in numbers and attendance. Our 
people are easily one third of the population of the State, and they 
will continue to quietly prosecute their work until they have school 
'-com for every Catholic child. We should not be buried under 
the classification of private schools. We are free public schools in 



iao5J COOPERATIVE FORCES IN EDUCATION 85 

every sense of the term, except one, that of being supported by the 
taxes which we ourselves pay into the public treasury. 

This paper would not be frank or complete if I did not say a word 
upon the question — would the promoters of religious schools like 
to have their own share of the public taxes applied to the support 
of their schools? This is a question which can not be answered 
categorically. The reply to be accurate needs to be both indirect 
and direct, and I would ask any one who is interested in the subject 
to keep in mind the answer as a whole. I answer thus. They are 
not lying awake at night fretting upon the subject. The grant or 
its refusal will never cause them to swerve from their principles 
and purpose. They want nothing for Christian instruction as such. 
Neither do they desire it as the temporary triumph of any political 
party or sentiment. 

This being prefaced, let me ask, what man or body of men ever 
hankered after the privilege of paying twice for the same article, 
as we are doing with the schools ? What man on important business 
bent would walk from New York to San Francisco when he could 
take the Overland Limited? We are walking in our efforts for the 
development and the perfection of our schools, whereas we could 
pimost fly if we, had sufficient funds at our command. What child 
would hesitate to hope for and to continually urge the satisfaction 
of a real need from a rich, loving and bountiful father, capable of 
seeing the force of argument, fond of fair play and anxious to 
supply every legitimate desire of his children? The American 
people are our father and we are the children. 

One hesitates to give a direct answer to so important a question 
on his own responsibility. I quote, therefore, from the platform of 
the American Federation of Catholic Societies which declares : 
" One of our objects is to keep burning brighter the lamp of public 
opinion on the school question, this solution being proposed : First, 
let our schools remain as they are, the property of the church ; 
secondly, let no public moneys be paid for religious instruction in 
any school ; thirdly, let the children be examined in secular studies 
by a municipal or a State board, and if we furnish the secular edu- 
cation required by the State, let the State apply the taxes assessed 
for education to our public schools." 

After all this last clause in the federation declaration resembles 
very much what the Navy Department does with regard to its war- 
ships. It builds a great many in its own navy yards, but places a 
great many more in the yards of private firms. These latter are 
built according to national plan, and under the supervision of 



86 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2/ 

national architects. They are paid for on completion and official 
approbation. They rank officially with those constructed with the 
Navy Department itself; and who will say they are not equal to 
the best? 

This is all that it is possible to say upon this great subject at the 
present time. My wish has been to bring" to the attention of the 
Convocation the strength, the importance, the efficiency and the 
popularity of the various classes of cooperative forces. New York 
State is certainly blessed in its splendid public school system. It 
derives great benefit also from the large voluntary contributive 
agencies. May both live, prosper and grow, enriching the people 
with the knowledge and virtue that form faithful, happy, prosperous 
citizens, and make liberty a real blessing upon the earth. 

Saturday morning October 27 

THE COMMERCIAL PROGRAM IN SECONDARY EDUCA- 
TION 

PRIN. JAMES J. SHEPPARD, HIGH SCHOOL OF COMMERCE, NEW YORK 

CITY 

It would be superfluous before a body of this sort to point out 
at any leiigth the remarkable indications of interest now shown 
everywhere in the adaptation of education to practical ends. But a 
word or two by way of preface may be in place. A host of tech- 
nical institutions now flourishing in the United States and through- 
out Europe have sprung into being within the last decade. They 
owe their origin to the feeling that the great fields of industry and 
commerce need their services and ofifer rich opportunities to those 
who can bring to them an adequate technical equipment. The re- 
markable activity of Germany along these lines is familiar to all of 
you. A recent statement gives the following figures for the em- 
pire : 9 technical high schools (or as we should say technical colleges) , 
4 mining academies. 4 commercial high schools and 587 middle 
and lower grade industrial, technical and commercial schools and 
colleges. There are enthusiasts who ascribe Germany's remarkable 
success in commerce to these institutions which furnish a complete 
system of training from the lowest to the highest grades. This 
view neglects other factors of great importance and is doubtless an 
exaggeration quite unnecessary to establish the really great value 
of the educational contribution made by these newer institutions to 
Germany's ])rogress. There is every evidence that the German 



UJ06\ COMMERCIAL PROGRAM IN SECOIilDARY EDUCATION 87 

business world welcomes this new force and counts heavily upon it 
for the future, for the system is being extended and broadened 
everywhere throughout the empire and in very large measure by 
the activity of chambers of commerce and other commercial bodies. 
England, France, Belgium, Austria, little Switzerland and Italy are 
all alive to the situation and each in its own way is pushing forward 
plans for enlarging the scope of technical education and adapting 
it more and more to present day needs. 

What is being done in this country is known to all of you. It 
is not so many years ago that the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology stood almost alone as a high-grade technical school. How 
many rivals it has now ! A decade ago the Wharton School in the 
University of Pennsylvania was practically the only institution of 
collegiate grade offering a course in commerce. One could name a 
dozen now. Dartmouth goes even further and offers in its Tuck 
School work of a postgraduate character. And as to schools of 
secondary grade, the introduction of industrial and commercial 
training into their curriculums within the past lo years has been 
the most notable feature of their recent history. More than that, 
several of the larger cities have established independent commercial 
high schools. A most striking indication of public interest in the 
matter was the visit of the mayor of Boston accompanied by the 
entire school board to the commercial schools of New York city a 
few months ago and the prompt establishment shortly after of a 
commercial high school in Boston. For some time plans have been 
under consideration in Chicago looking toward similar action. 

It would seem that there is now in outline a fairly complete 
scheme of commercial education in this country. It is provided for 
in the secondary school, in the college, and in the university, and 
very importantly ' though less pretentiously in a host of private 
business schools and in many cities in evening classes in connection 
with the public school system. I say in outline, for as yet 'a mere 
beginning has been made in the higher phases, notably in the in- 
stitutions of collegiate grade, but also in the secondary school. The 
problem as it relates to the latter institution is the one which I am 
to discuss this morning, my topic being " The Commercial Program 
in Secondary Education." In determining what to say upon it I 
have been guided in great part by the numerous inquiries that 
come to one in my position from those who want to know what New 
York city is doing for commercial education, inquiries coming not 
alone from all parts of this country, but from foreign lands as well, 
which is another indication of the widespread interest in this subject. 



88 44'J^W UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2/ 

Writers on commercial education are prone to consider only the 
needs of the business world and suggest a course of study admirable 
in itself and theoretically well adapted to its purposes but not always 
suited to the young people for whom it is prescribed. In general 
the courses suggested are too pretentious, too ambitious, and while 
they look well on paper they can not be carried out in practice. A 
proper commercial course will not only adapt itself to the needs of 
the business world, but also to the capacities and possibilities of the 
pupil. Roughly speaking, a commercial high school will attract 
three classes of pupils. First, a large class, many of only fair ability, 
whose stay in the high school will be limited. They either have not 
the perseverance or the foresight to " stick it out," or the economic 
pressure at home induces them to become wage earners at an early 
age, or what is apparently the commonest situation in a large com- 
mercial center, there are so many places of one sort or another 
open to them that the temptation of what is called " a good posi- 
tion " is too strong to be resisted. For this class a year's work in 
the high school will be the average amount accomplished. The 
second class includes those who finish more than two and less than 
four years of study and who upon leaving generally have little 
difficulty in getting reasonably good positions. Many of these, as 
indeed a goodly percentage of tlTe first class also, continue their 
studies in evening schools. The third class includes those who finish 
the course and always numbers a few who go on to college or a 
higher technical school. Such students are in great demand and usually 
secure excellent positions at once. Indeed the demand far exceeds 
the supply. 

The makers of the secondary commercial program must keep in 
mind the needs of these several classes, considering both what they 
are able to do as students and what they are likely to do later as 
workers in the field of business. Obviously the first class can secure 
only a very elementary training fitting them for minor positions. 
The second class will be prepared for situations requiring a higher 
order of intelligence and a fair degree of technical business equip- 
ment, while the third class will go out with a fairly rounded train- 
ing fitting them for good positions at the start, and insuring those 
who are industrious and persistent certain advancement. They will 
have a very great deal to learn, it is true, but their training will 
make the task an easier one. 

The one thing expected of each of these classes by the business 
man, in varying degrees, of course, is efficiency. There are two 
sorts of efficiency, which one may describe as general and special. 



1906] COMMERCIAL PROGRAM IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 89 

Any good high school, classical, manual training or commercial, 
ought to -give the first kind. In other words any good high school 
ought to send out pupils with trained intelligences, pupils who know 
how to put brains into their work, who can see relations, who can 
organize their knowledge, who have a degree of initiative, who can 
assume responsibility. These are things of primary importance. 
So far as any high school gives them so far does it give genuine 
preparation for the activities of business. But the business man 
wants also in his recruits a special efficiency. He wants the new- 
comer to have some special knowledge and some special skill for 
his work. The most elementary requirement would be facility in 
the use of figures, the writing of a good hand and a reasonably 
accurate elementary acquaintance with the mother tongue. From 
this level there is a gradation through bookkeeping, office economy, 
stenography and typewriting as perhaps most typical up to a knowl- 
edge of accounting, the . elements of finance and commercial law, 
and general business organization. To these may be added in some 
instances a knowledge of the commercial applications of a science 
like chemistry, and in yet others, such as in exporting and importing 
"houses, a familiarity with one or more modern languages. Time 
was when it was comparatively easy to secure this special efficiency 
in the business itself, just as in former days it was possible to study 
law in a lawyer's office. But this is the day of specialization. The 
large business of the present day has its numerous departments, 
each with its well defined routine. Each employee is busily con- 
cerned with his own restricted tasks, and unless he has more than 
ordinary energies and initiative, or is possessed of influence he is 
likely to have little opportunity for broader experience. The com- 
mercial high school will naturally supply all grades of workers, 
but it will have as its highest aim to give its graduates that sort of 
training which will fit them and inspire them to become the doers 
of business rather than recorders of business, clerks, or bookkeepers 
or stenographers. The commercial graduate will not be content 
with knowing the routine of his particular assignment. He will 
want to know its relation to the work of the whole department and 
the relation of that department to others in the same institution. He 
will study the system and organization as a whole, the conditions 
which govern the business ; in short he will strive to secure a com- 
Drehensive grasp of the work of the institution as a whole. There 
is a real dearth of young men of that^ type in the business world, 
and it will be a long time before our commercial high schools will 
be able to meet the demand for them. 



90 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2/ 

How can the commercial high school give the special efficiency 
vhich I have just described? First by arranging its course of study 
so as best to meet the needs of the several classes who come to it. 
The first year will therefore prescribe a training in penmanship,, 
business arithmetic, and the elements of business forms and methods 
in connection with English and the other standard subjects of the 
modern secondary school. In a large commercial center it will pro- 
vide further a broad general study of local industries and trade, a 
commercial geography of immediate practical interest which will put 
some order into the apparent complexity of business activities the 
pupil sees about him and perhaps point the way to his future career. 
These studies not only best suit the needs of the students whose stay 
in the high school is short, but form also a logical introduction to 
the more advanced work which should be provided for the other 
two classes of pupils in the later years of the course. Bookkeepings 
and stenography and typewriting will be the typical additions in 
the second and third year with a continuance of commercial geog- 
raphy along broader lines, while in the fourth year economics and 
commercial law will round out the distinctly commercial phases of 
the program. 

A second way by which the commercial school will give special 
efficiency is by making every study so far as possible contribute 
to the practical equipment of the student. In connection with the 
work of the secondary English course there should be continuous 
and progressive training directed immediately toward commercial 
ends. It should include such matters as letter writing, with drill 
m ordinary business idioms; the preparation of telegrams, the 
writing and answering of advertisements ; oral and written reports 
on commercial topics ; the preparation of a careful discussion of 
some line of business. Nor should training in effective oral ex- 
pression be neglected. The power of concise and persuasive speech 
is of much moment to the business man. In history a shifting of 
the emphasis from political lines to economic and commercial phases 
will contribute to the desired result. And fortunately this method 
of treatment is making its way into the best textbooks. Tn ad- 
dition excellent special texts are now available. The average man 
has only a remote or, at best, a superficial interest in constitutions 
and forms of government. He is concerned with the economic con- 
ditions under which he gains his daily bread. He will have a clearer 
and a saner understanding of them through a study of the long 
period of industrial and commercial development which leads up to 
the present century. 



1906] COMMERCIAL PROGRAM IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 9I 

The modern languages will have in addition to their disciplinary 
and culture values, a distinctly practical bearing on business life 
through the opportunities they afford the student of securing an 
intimate acquaintance with the commercial activities of foreign 
countries. The social and business customs of the latter, their im- 
ports and exports, their commercial relations with our own and 
other countries, all these may be studied now in books, well adapted 
to secondary instruction. Experience shows that four years of a 
language study with a view toward securing facility in its conver- 
sational use can be relied upon to insure a fair degree of fluency in 
speech. A mere reading knowledge is not sufficient for the com- 
mercial graduate, who can well dispense with some of the niceties 
of modern language study for an equipment of immediate im- 
portance to him. The German commercial schools may well be en- 
vied for their great success in teaching young men to speak other 
languages than their own. A perusal of the " Help wanted " 
columns of the New York Journal of Commerce will make it quite 
clear that in a great commercial seaport, at least, the ability to use 
German, or French, or Spanish is something worth striving to 
secure. 

The modern industrial world touches science at every turn and 
the scientific phase of its work should be a distinguishing character- 
istic of a school of commerce. In the study of biology and chem- 
istry and physics there is not only the development of the powers 
of doing and seeing and drawing conclusions at first-hand, essential 
elements in the equipment of a business man, but there are also 
numerous incidental applications to commercial purposes. Biology 
for instance, introduces the pupil to the raw materials of commerce, 
their distribution, production, growth and relative values. Topics 
such as the folloAving will receive special consideration : 

The relation of germination experiments to agricultural processes 

Fertilization and its bearing on plant breeding 

Yeast and its relation to fermentation products C bread etc.) 

Bacteria and their relation to the canning industry, etc. 

The principles of stem grafting and the nursery business 

Fish, oyster and lobster culture 

Insects and their economic relations 

The student will learn that the findings of biology have a direct 
bearing upon commercial processes, that all industries which con- 
cern plant or animal products are developed only as progress is 
made in biologic research, and that the method of experiment is the 
only way in which real progress can proceed. Chemistry and physics 



92 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2/ 

can, of course, be studied only in an elementary way in the sec- 
ondary school, yet the former will acquaint the pupil with many 
processes by which crude material is transformed into the manu- 
factured product and physics will familiarize him with the funda- 
mental transformation of energy involved in all mechanical oper- 
ations. 

Today one of the chief items in the cost of producing a staple 
article is the cost of advertising it, in some cases more than half 
of the total outlay. The business world spends enormous sums to 
attract and secure customers, and in doing so makes use of many 
avenues of publicity. Note the numerous advertisements appear- 
ing in magazines and other publications and observe the artistic 
care evidenced in their presentation. Not only are the illustrations 
well drawn and attractive, but the lettering and arrangement of 
descriptive matter are also in the best of taste. Surely here is a 
hint for the drawing department of a commercial school. An 
adaptation of its work to the requirements of this great field is 
certainly to be commended. And further how many articles of com- 
merce today owe much of their value to their artistic form. Even 
the refinement of taste which a study of drawing gives has a dis- 
tinct commercial value. 

In what I have said on the second method to be employed by a 
commercial school in order that it may give its students a special 
efficiency I think I have made it quite clear that the course of study 
in this type of school should be genuinely liberal. It should include 
practically all the studies provided in any good secondary school, 
Latin and Greek are almost the only exceptions. The commercial 
graduate should be a broadly trained worker. He should not be 
deprived of the schooling which " strengthens the powers of judg- 
ment, widens the sympathies, and stimulates the imagination " in 
order to give him a hasty special equipment. There are great 
numbers who belong to the "get education quick" class, just as 
there are great numbers who belong to the " get rich quick " class. 
They are the foolish ones to whom the idea of growth means 
nothing. Education takes time, and the short cut is a delusion and 
a snare. Four years is none too long a period to devote to the 
program I have indicated. Even then the intending business man 
gets a much earlier start in his career than does his professional 
brother. 

In connection with the first method suggested for increasing the 
commercial pupil's special efficiency, mention was made of two com- 
paratively new subjects — commercial geography and economics. 



1906] COMMERCIAL PROGRAM IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 93 

Such familiar branches as business arithmetic, bookkeeping, com- 
mercial law, etc., will naturally be important parts of any commer- 
cial course, and hardly require discussion here. But commercial 
geography and economics are so distinctly valuable, and at the 
same time so recent an addition to the curriculum that they deserve 
special mention. If I were to name the really characteristic study 
of a modern commercial school, I should unhesitatingly say " com- 
mercial geography." It and the allied subject, economics, may well 
be classed apart as providing a third means for giving the com- 
mercial pupil a special efficiency. It would be interesting to go into 
detail upon this point, but the limits of this paper forbid. Suffice 
it to say here that the sort of study I am thinking of is one which 
leads the pupil from a study of his own immediate industrial en- 
vironment by easy stages to a comprehension of the commercial 
activities of larger and larger areas that in the total make up the 
circle of world commerce. With the United States as a center the 
pupil will study other countries as sources" of raw material, as 
present or possible customers, and as competitors in the world 
market. Economics gives a scientific basis to this study, and makes 
it something more than a mere accumulation of facts. 

To the three ways already cited to be employed by the commer- 
cial school in giving the special efficiency demanded by the business 
world, I would add a fourth, though it is just as important in one sort 
of a school as in another. Some business,man has said that he " Had 
no more use for a man who makes bad bargains in three languages 
than for one who makes all his bad bargains in English." In other 
words the business man is much more interested in the effective 
■use oi vvhat knowledge his assistant has than in the extent of that 
knowledge. As soon as the student leaves the school, he will be 
measured by what he can do rather than by what he knows. Now I 
am strongly of the opinion that much of our teaching is wofully weak 
along this line. The mere accumulation of information is given too 
much emphasis. The "application of that information to a practical 
-use is slighted or neglected altogether. Some years ago I taught 
civics. I found it rather easy to get the pupils to learn the main 
points of the Constitution, but I had the feeling that the various 
clauses of that instrument really didn't mean much to them after all. 
I finally hit upon the plan of making a problem for each day's lesson 
of as much practical interest as possible whose solution would re- 
quire an application of what the pupil had studied. These problems 
were in the beginning rather simple, but the total failure of so many 
pupils to see the connection between the text and the problem was 



94 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2J 

a revelation to me. It was also a revelation to them. Day by day 
I could note a gradual improvement in the pupil's power to apply his 
knowledge, and the genuine eagerness with which he looked for each 
new test gave evidence of a new sort of interest in the work. Since 
that experiment I have never thought of teaching a subject 
without using the problem method. I am aware that many 
teachers employ this plan after a fashion, in some subjects much 
more than in others, but I am arguing for its systematic, continuous,, 
and progressive use, all along the line. We must be content, per- 
haps, with a smaller quantity of work, but there will be more than a 
corresponding gain in quality. 

To sum up what I have said on the Program of the Commercial 
Secondary School : It should give the general efficiency which any 
good secondary school gives by including the standard secondary 
subjects in its curriculum, the ancient languages excepted, being- 
content, perhaps, to devote a somewhat smaller amount of time to 
them. It should give the special efficiency demanded by the bus- 
iness world by a proper arrangement of its courses so as to meet 
the varying needs of the several classes of workers it will send out, 
by making each svibject of the course yield a training of distinctly 
commercial value, by emphasizing the newer forms of commercial 
study, commercial geography and economics, and by training its 
pupils to relate and apply their knowledge to concrete problems. 



THE RELATION OF INDUSTRIAL EXERCISES TO 
OTHER EDUCATIONAL FACTORS 

PRIN. CHARLES D. LARKINS, MANUAL TRAINING HIGH SCHOOL, 

BROOKLYN 

Professor William James in his Talks to Teachers on Psychology 
[P- 33] y tells us that "One general aphorism ought b}^ logical right 
to dominate the entire conduct of the teacher in the classroom.'* 
He adds : " No reception without reaction, no impression without 
correlative expression, — this is the great maxim which the teacher 
ought never to forget." 

The human mind employs four chief means or ways of expressing 
its content, viz, words, pictorial representation, material construc- 
tion, and musical sounds. Not onlv must mind communicate with 
mind by way of these means of expression, but if a mind is to be 
fully conscious of its own content, it must employ those means in 
completing the cycle of its reactions. Furthermore, some ideas, if 



1906] IXDU STRIAL EXERCISES AND OTHER EDUCATIONAL FACTORS 95 

not every idea, can be expressed in only one of those forms, and 
each form is the only outlet for certain groups of ideas; hence, to 
neglect to practise expression in any one of those ways is to limit 
the cogitative power of the mind so far as certain kinds of ideas 
are concerned. It follows that the school should provide practice 
in expression by words, by pictorial representation, by material 
construction and by musical sounds, and it follows that every school 
should provide practice in expression in each of those ways for 
every pupil in order that all of the capabilities of each pupil may be 
brought to the point of greatest effectiveness. It is plain then, 
that exercises in drawing, material construction, and music stand 
in importance side by side with exercises in the use of language. 

A just scheme of education provides for four things: (i) the 
acquisition of facts or ideas, (2) the understanding of the relations 
of those facts or ideas, (3) the cultivation of the creative imagina- 
tion, and (4) the training of the will. While these four things may 
be stated and discussed, in a way, separately, they can not be sep- 
arated in practice. The activity of the school may be centered 
chiefly upon one, but the doing of any one necessarily involves the 
doing of the others to a greater or less degree. 

The acquisition of facts or ideas is merely the accumulation of 
the intellectual materials, the collection of the e-ducational bricks and 
mortar. It has been an end in education since the beginning of 
schools, and must necessarily be an end always. Some systems of 
education make it almost the only end. Indeed, all else is accidental. 
Efifort is devoted to loading the memory. The range of study is 
extremely limited. Material facts are almost entirely neglected. In 
certain systems, ethical questions are considered to the exclusion 
of almost all others. In the Chinese schools the student gives his 
attention to committing to memory the words of Confucius. During 
more than 2000 years Chinese mathematics has got little beyond the 
use of the abacus, a device we use to teach the simplest of arith- 
metical operations to primary school children. While the Chinese 
have discovered and developed the use of some very valuable ma- 
terial facts, those discoveries have not been due to the work of the 
schools. The schools have been engaged in perpetuating a code of 
ethics. As a consequence, Chinese civilization has marked time for 
centuries. The Mohammedan schools are similarly engaged, and 
the result is practically the same. The stronger the desire to pre- 
scribe determining elements of life, the more does the system limit 
the work of the school to acquisition. The unskilful teacher also 
satisfies himself with acquisition. If education stops here, it results 



96 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2/ 

in the unthinking acceptance of what is taught. Its final products 
are servility, bigotry, barbarity and conceit. 

The understanding of the many relations of the facts or ideas 
acquired is the second educational desideratum. A clear compre- 
hension of such relations is brought about by an investigation of the 
when, the -where, the how, the tvhy, and the hozv much. The history 
of education is dotted with the names of great masters, iTiade great 
by their ability to make their pupils see those relations. From all 
quarters came seekers after knowledge that they might sit at the 
feet of the master and see things as he saw them. And such educa- 
tional pilgrimages are now made. The fame of the great teacher 
is heralded more widely today than ever before. 

To enable his pupil to comprehend the relations of facts and 
ideas, the modern teacher employs outlines, syllabuses and formulas. 
He explains, demonstrates, analyzes and experiments. He resorts 
to diagrams, charts, maps and pictures. In short, the major part 
of his time and energy is given to this work, for the teacher well 
knows that the better the relations are understood, the firmer will 
the ideas be fixed in the memory. And he furthermore knows that 
any number of known facts if isolated are useless for practical 
purposes. If education terminates here, the result is a clear under- 
standing of what is being done, and the ability to see and to do 
what has been taught, but inability to advance unaided. The final 
result is hopeless mediocrity. Fortunately, it is and has always 
been impossible to stop completely at this point. If it were possible 
to do so, it would be possible to stop the progress of civilization. 

The points just discussed, namely, the acquisition of ideas and the 
understanding of their relations, are the preparatory steps to inde- 
pendent thinking ; that is, to the cultivation of the creative imagina- 
tion and the training of the will. No advance is possible except 
by the exercise of creative power. The progress of civilization is 
due less to what men have been taught, than to what some of them 
have thought out for themselves. 

The cultivation of the creative imagination, that is, the teaching 
of a pupil to throw his materials into new relations, together with 
the training of the will, or the leading of the creative impulse to 
discharge itself into motor activity, constitutes the highest function 
of the school. The two can not be separated, and ought therefore 
to be discussed together. 

The four forms of expression enumerated above indicate that the 
cultivation of the creative imagination and the training of the will 
must proceed along four distinct lines in order that " the whole boy 



1906] INDUSTRIAL EXERCISES AND OTHER EDUCATIONAL FACTORS 97 

may be put to school." We get our first and most suggestive lessons 
from the teachers of the languages. It is the custom of all language 
teachers to give much attention to the study of masterpieces. This 
is the first of four principal steps in training for creative work. 
The masterpiece is studied in detail. The purpose of the author is 
determined, the motive or principal conception is identified, the 
relations of the various parts are pointed out, the embellishments 
are dwelt upon, and the artistic beauties of the various parts and 
the composition as a whole are shown. In short, everything that 
goes to make it a masterpiece or that detracts from its excellencies 
is carefully brought into the student's intellectual fielfl of view, and 
he is often asked to commit the entire work, or at least some choice 
bits of it, to memory. 

The second step, an effort at reproduction, is more often ne- 
glected, and yet many of our great writers attribute the excellence 
of their work to their oft repeated attempts to reproduce as nearly 
as possible the works of a master. All teachers acknowledge the 
value of reproduction as a means of training, yet - few of them 
employ it but sparingly. If reproduction as a means of training 
for creative power is to be attempted, the masterpiece should not 
be committed to memory although it should be carefully studied. 
Accuracy of reproduction depends upon faithfulness of memory and 
skill in the use of the particular form of expression. The value of 
the product as an exercise in creation decreases as the accuracy of 
reproduction increases, provided always that a fairly good product 
is obtained. 

The third step, imitation of the master, is too sparingly used. 
The teacher usually jumps from the study of the masterpiece, par- 
ticularly in the teaching of English, to original composition, and 
sad to relate, the composition is not correlated with any of the other 
work of the pupil. The omission of practice in imitation is to be 
deplored, both because of its excellence as an exercise in creation 
and because pupils usually enjoy it. During the Spanish War one 
of our boys who was studying Caesar's Commentaries amused him- 
self and his classmates by writing commentaries in Latin in imita- 
tion of Caesar, based upon the previous day's newspaper reports, 
imagining himself in each commentary, to be the coinmander. The 
teacher accepted his work in place of the weekly task in Latin 
composition, until the boy got tired of the sport. The child is a 
natural play actor, and will put forth his best efforts in imitation 
when he will make no effort at original work. To prove this, after 
carefully explaining the poetic form, try your class on limericks and 



98 44'^"H UNIVERSIT>- CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2/ 

triolets, or even on quatrains and sonnets, and see how many will 
enjoy the trial. 

Success in imitation — and a large proportion of students prbve 
to be fairly successful in that exercise — will usually lead the pupil 
to attempt more serious original composition with courage and en- 
thusiasm. If the preliminary steps have been carefully taken, the 
teacher is likely to find that the student realizes his ability to throw 
his materials into new relations and is willing to make the attempt ; 
that is to say, his creative imagination and his expressional activities 
are at work. Then and not till then has the child the probability of 
becoming a moving intellectual force. 

While we have received our first and most suggestive lessons from 
the teachers of languages, the teachers of drawing and manual 
training are generally applying some of those lessons with greater 
skill and persistence. We find the walls of our drawing class- 
rooms covered with reproductions of famous paintings and other 
excellent pictures bearing upon whatever work the teacher is at- 
tempting to do, and the walls, desks, and tops of cases bearing 
plaster casts of famous works of art. With the aid of the teacher, 
the pupils study the masterpieces thus placed before them, but the 
modern drawing teacher no longer calls upon his pupils to copy pic- 
tures or to draw from casts except as he wishes them to secure 
technic in the use of the pencil or brush. He hurries over that work 
as the teacher of English hurries over penmanship, spelling, and the 
other mechanical parts of English expression. In his haste to get 
on to imitation, the teacher often fails to pause long enough over 
reproduction. He begins design at an early period, and continues 
it to the end of his course of instruction. If allowed to do so, he 
correlates his work with the work in science, languages, and manual 
training. He is constantly on the alert to stimulate the creative 
imagination, and to induce the expression of its content. 

Teachers of manual training, that is, teachers of material con- 
struction, are not yet generally and fully alive to the importance of 
studying -masterpieces, nor have they yet shaken themselves free 
from the influence of the set of exercises in construction prescribed 
for the first manual training school in this country. That school 
had its origin in a purely utilitarian conception. The exercises 
Avere designed to teach the use of tools and the processes of con- 
strrction. with no thought for cultivating the creative imagination. 
The influence still persists. 

The skilful teacher of manual training provides, when possible, 
excellent samples of construction for his pupils to study. He 



1906] INDUSTRIAL EXERCISES AND OTHER EDUCATIONAL FACTORS 99 

exhibits drawings and pictures in plenty and leads up to reproduc- 
tion and imitation as soon as possible. It is easier to build a mental 
image of a material object than of any other object, hence it is 
possible to progress more rapidly to original composition in manual 
tiaining than in any other line of school work. Although no other 
school exercises lend themselves so readily to the training of the 
creative imagination and the will as those in material construction, 
a large majority of the schools that teach manual training give the 
major part of the time to teaching the uses of tools and the pro- 
cesses of construction instead of the construction of articles designed 
by the pupils. While the system of manual training known as sloyd 
uses complete and practical articles as exercises, the " models " are 
prescribed, every pupil makes the same thing in the same way, and 
the child's inventiveness is unemployed. 

Perhaps it is well to take a moment to point out the parallelism 
of musical expression with verbal, pictorial and constructive expres- 
sion. Nowhere will the importance of the study of masterpieces 
be more readily granted than in the teaching of music, nor is the 
importance of the other steps, namely, the effort to reproduce the 
work of the master, and to imitate him^ more readily seen. We are 
obliged to give so little time to the teaching of music that the results 
are relatively barren; still a fairly satisfactory result in original 
composition may usually be obtained at less cost of effort on the 
part of both pupil and teacher in music than in any other form of 
expression except the constructive form. Indeed, it is not certain 
that even that exception needs to be made. It may be true that 
few of our pupils are embryo Beethovens, or Wagners, but they 
are as likely to prove to be such after careful training as they are 
to be Shaksperes, or Miltons, or Angelos, or Wrens. We do not 
expect them to prove to be great geniuses in language, or art, or 
architecture, or music, but we ought to make the best of what talents 
they may have in whatever direction those talents may lie. Only 
as they are taught to use their talents, can they be brought to their 
full efficiency. 

The fourth and last step in cultivating the creative imagination 
and training the will, is original composition. Instruction in all 
forms of composition should proceed along parallel lines. First, 
the pupil presents his plan, known in verbal composition as the 
outhne, in drawing as the preliminary study, in construction as the 
preliminary sketch, and in music as the formula. This plan is criti- 
cized and approved by the teacher. Second, the pupil oreoares his 
detailed plan known in verbal composition as the rough draught, 



lOO 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2/ 

in drawing as the complete study, in construction as the working 
drawing, and in music as the sketch, which is criticized and ap- 
proved. Finally, the pupil submits his finished work known as his 
theme, or drawing or project, or opus, as the case may be, which 
in turn is criticized arfd corrected in minor points. Thus the real 
parallelism of the four forms of composition is evident. As has 
been said, the teachers of language gave us our first lessons, and 
the path they pursue in their work is by far the best path for 
teachers of pictorial representation, of material construction and of 
music, to follow. Having indicated the place of industrial exercises 
among educational factors, it remains to show briefly the way they 
are being used at the present time. 

Schools that employ mdustrial exercises as a part of their curric- 
ulum may be roughly divided into three classes ; viz, trade schools, 
a certain group of technical schools, and manual training schools. 
The aim of the trade school is to produce skill of hand. Skill in- 
volves two elements, ability to do something accurately and to do 
it quickly. Accuracy demands at the outset that the doer give close 
attention to his work and exert a continuous and conscious effort 
of the will. The initial progress is necessarily slow, but skill, like 
j^bit, grows through repetition at short intervals. As the number 
of repetition increases, the attention and will are less and less active 
until finally the doing of the work is largely automatic. As the 
ability to work accurately increases, speed may also increase until 
the worker becomes in a sense a machine. In the trade school, 
then, the personal end sought is the ability to act automatically 
with rapidity and acquracy, and the material end is a salable piece 
oi hand work. To gain those ends it is necessary to limit the work 
in variety and give much time to it ; hence the trade school has little 
academic work and only one variety of hand work. Since the 
student is thus limited, he is rarely a leader. 

The aim of the technical school is twofold, first to enable the 
student to apply the principles of the sciences to the practice of an 
art, and second to develop his creative power in some particular 
direction. The technical school, therefore, gives intense study to 
certain academic work, particularly to mathematics and the physical 
sciences. It also gives such hand work as will illuminate the future 
work of the studefit by teaching him how the various constructive 
processes are performed, how to know when they are well done, 
what constitutes a reasonable day's work, and what are the strength 
jLTid uses of his materials. It also teaches him drawing and the 



,1906] INDUSTRIAL EXERCISES AND OTHER EDUCx\TIONAL FACTORS lOi 

principles of design as applied in his work! While the student 
should be able to perform the various constructive processes accu- 
rately, it is not at all necessary that he should be able to do so 
quickly. Many constructive processes are therefore taught, and the 
time devoted to each is short. To gain the personal end, then, it 
is essential that the student should know and be able to apply the 
principles of the sciences to practical work, that he should be able 
to conceive new applications of those principles, and to direct the 
work of other people with accuracy and judgment. The material 
end sought is a piece of work that shall serve its purpose well, and 
have few weaknesses. The technical school, therefore, is likely to 
produce a leader. 

The aim of the manual training school is to develop the pupil's 
capabilities. The personal end is a clear working brain ; there is no 
im.mediate material end. The constructive work is changed as soon 
as the pupil begins to be automatic in his processes. Accuracy is de- 
manded in order to train the attention and the will. Skill is not 
sought — the time element prevents it. The main thing is growth 
and adaptability, or as some one has put it, " to furnish the pupil 
with a means of finding himself." 

All men may be created equal before the law ; but unfortunately 
for the ease of the schoolmaster, all men are not endowed with 
equal intelligence. Whether the child brings i or 10 talents to 
school, if the school is to be a " good and faithful servant," those 
talents must be employed so as to make them increase as many^ 
fold as possible. It is the province of the school to take the child 
as it finds him and make of him the best instrument for improving 
the condition of himself and the race that his capabilities allow. 
The formative process we call education ; and it is successful in 
proportion to its exhaustion of the child's capabilities for improve- 
ment, and its repression of his other capabilities. The educative 
process should promote the growth or development of the child's 
various powers until each has reached its full stature. It should 
train him to use those powers in the most effective way. And^ 
during the period of his growth, and the training of his powers,, 
he should be instructed in those things which will enable him to 
live a useful and exemplary life.. In short, his education should 
lead him to the enjoyment of the highest life of which he is capable,, 
and it should make him a joy and an Inspiration to. his fellawsVi. 
and an upright, high-minded and honorable citizen of .the State^. 
Not until the school turns out each child at his very best, does \t 
perform its highest function. , ,' "^. 



I02 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 27 

Perh?.ps this discussion may best be closed with another quotation 
from Professor William James's Talks to Teachers on Psychology 
[P- 35, 36] : 

The most colossal improvement which recent years have seen in 
secondary education lies in the introduction of the manual training 
schools ; not because they will give us a people more handy and 
practical for domestic life and better skilled in trades, but because 
they will give us citizens with an entirely different intellectual fiber. 
Laboratory work and shopwork engender a habit of observation, a 
knowledge of the difference between accuracy and vagueness, and 
an insight into nature's complexity and into the inadequacy of all 
abstract verbal accounts of real phenomena, which once wrought 
into the mind, remain there as lifelong possessions. They confer 
precision ; because, if you are doing a thing, you must do it definitely 
right or definitely wrong. They give honesty ; for, when you ex- 
press yourself by making things, and not by using words, it becomes 
impossible to dissimulate your vagueness or ignorance by ambiguity. 
They beget a habit of self-reliance ; they keep the interest and atten- 
tion always cheerfully engaged, and reduce the teacher's disciplinary 
functions to a minimum. 

Manual training methods, fortunately, are being slowly but surely 
introduced into all our large cities. But there is still an immense 
distance to traverse before they shall have gained the extension 
which they are destined ultimately to possess. 

Manual training will become a part of the curriculum of every 
pupil, in every course, in every school. You may shake your head 
at it, oppose it, decry it as you will, it is as sure to follow as the night 
the day. 

HIGH SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND THE INDIVIDUAL 

STUDENT 

PRIN. MILTON J. FLETCHER, JAMESTOWN HIGH SCHOOL 

This subject was suggested to me by an article which appeared 
in The Outlook some time during the last summer. Doubtless many 
of you read it. It was written by John Smith — a 20th century John 
Smith — who claims to be a ninth lineal descendant from the May- 
flower. Smith says his most intimate friend died poor leaving a 
son to be educated. Of Puritan ancestry, this John Smith pos- 
sessed what he calls the " college taint," and he decided to send his 
friend's son to college. The boy made an honor record ; and when 
he had nearly completed his course John Smith paid him a visit. 
In discussing plans for the future. Smith suggested to the young 
man that, as it would soon be necessary for him to find his niche 
in the world, he ought to secure testimonials from his professors as 



1906] THE HIGH SCHOOL AND THE INDIVIDUAL STUDENT IO3 

to his character and ability. The young man's response was : '* I 
don't know one of them and not one of them knows me. There is 
not an instructor or professor in the college to whom I should 
think of going. I don't think there is one who would know me ii 
I did." 

Taking this astonishing statement as a text, John Smith delivers 
himself of a sweeping criticism of the colleges. He characterizes 
the recitation room as a place " with a tongue at one end and a 
pencil at the other " ; and he suggests that somebody " endow a 
chair of humanity to accompany the chairs of the humanities, and 
send a man into the university who may earn a Ph. D. in the knowl- 
edge of young boys and their works and ways." 

He concludes by asking if, since the boy receives so little personal 
attention and sympathetic direction in college, it is worth while to 
send him at all. 

The obvious reply to John Smith's sweeping criticism is that 
one swallow does not make a summer. It might be difficult 
to duplicate such an extreme case as he cites. The college 
in question may have been at fault — doubtless was ; but the difficulty 
may have lain even more in the disposition and irresponsive nature 
of the young man himself. And yet this is not a sufficient answer, 
for the young man had the right to know that somebody in the 
college had been appointed whose business it was to take the initia- 
tive in ofifering him personal assistance and direction. 

John Smith's criticism is an old one. It raises a subject which 
is always in order for discussion, not only among educators them- 
selves, but also among outside critics of educational institutions. 
This is simply proof of its vital character. 

In organizing a school three chief purposes are to be accomp- 
lished : first, organization for instruction ; second, organization for 
study and order; third, organization in the interests of the individ- 
ual — ^that is, to see that each student receives that personal attention 
and sympathetic direction so essential to the average young person, 
but which are not required by statute and which could hardly be 
enforced if they were required. 

I am aware that this classification of the purposes of school 
organization may seem new to many and even unwarranted. We 
have been accustomed to think that if a school is properly organized 
for instruction, for study and for order, if the school atmosphere 
is congenial, the student will also find there incidentally and natur- 
ally, all those other influences needful to his growth which any- 
school can furnish. I do not denv that there is arround for this 



I04 44'J^'H UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2/ 

position. It is clear that in certain kinds of schools, the third pur- 
pose that I have named is accomplished by the very nature of the 
conditions under which the school is organized. This is true, for 
example, of the private boarding school, of the rural school under 
one teacher, arid of graded schools where each teacher has entire 
charge of the same group of pupils from term to term. It is true 
in a somewhat less degree of the small old-fashioned college. In 
each of these cases, personal contact between learner and teacher 
is sufficiently close and carried over a sufficient period of time for 
whatever qualities of sympathy, force and leadership a teacher may 
possess to leave their due impress on the young lives committed 
to his charge. 

But educational development in this country has produced other 
schools, schools organized on the department plan : schools num- 
bering hundreds, sometimes thousands of students- — universities, 
colleges, high schools, and normal schools ; schools where each in- 
structor, if he be so inclined, may consider his duty done each da)' 
when he has doled out to his classes their ration of mathematics or 
history or science, as the case may be. That the influence of the 
teacher in the classroom is often an exceedingly potent factor in 
the development of character no one will dispute ; but it is equally 
true that the tendency of the department system of education is to 
lessen the sympathetic, helpful contact of teacher and student, to 
make teaching more informational and less inspirational ; in short, 
to make teaching more and more a strictly business proposition — so 
much information to be delivered on such days at set hours to certain 
groups of students for so much a year. 

The question John Smith raises is legitimate and timely. The 
department system of school organization makes it easv to leave 
much undone that is of vital consequence. We hardly begin to 
realize I think the full import of the rapid transition from the old- 
fashioned school to the new, where no student belongs to anj^body 
in particular and where each teacher is a specialist. The teacher 
wrapped up in his specialty, with no necessary contact with students 
except at the class hour, may easily sink to the level of a mere 
instructor, forgetting to cultivate those qualities of leadership which 
characterize every great teacher and which form the vitalizing, up- 
lifting force of every truly successful school. Likewise educators 
in general, fixing their eyes too steadily and with absorbing satis- 
faction upon the advance made in skilful instruction through the 
department system of organization, easily forget to consider whether 



1906] THE HIGH SCHOOL AND THE INDIVIDUAL STUDENT IO5 

there has not been at the same time a loss m certain moral and 
spiritual forces which more than outweighs the intellectual gain. 

The question presents itself, then, in this fashion : Is there in our 
system of education, secondary and higher education particularly, a 
lack of careful organization in the interest of the individual? Is 
there not here under modern educational conditions a neglected but 
an exceedingly promising field for educational endeavor? It seems 
to me there is, and I am inclined to think that patient and persistent 
effort in this direction would result in an increased efficiency in the 
teaching force of the country quite as marked as would be the 
benefits derived by the students themselves. 

Criticism of the John Smith variety has fallen oftenest and with 
greatest severity upon the higher institutions of learning — especially 
upon the universities. Indeed, the remedy most often prescribed 
is to send the boy to the small college where he will be sure of 
close and inspiring contact with the few choice spirits always found 
upon every college faculty. But where shall we look for the small 
college? Among the family of higher institutions of learning the 
small college is rapidly becoming an extinct species. Most colleges 
have caught the American spirit of bigness, arid institutions having 
200 or 300 students lo or 15 years ago, now number 600, 800, or 
TOGO ; but we still call them small colleges and comparatively they 
are. Moreover, it is easier and more economical, financially, to 
increase the capacity of institutions already founded than it is to 
establish others. 

" It is," then, " a condition which confronts us and not a theory." 
Many of our educational institutions are already large and they -ase 
growing larger every year. Nor is there any aporeciable reaction 
against mere bigness in educational institutions. We shall doubtless 
go on until we have the biggest colleges, universities and high 
schools known to any nation or time. Nothing less will satisfy 
the American sense of proportion. 

Meantime we should not lose sight of the fact that the larger the 
crowd the less the average individual counts for. There is some- 
thing about the great, pushing, crowding throng that robs person- 
ality of much of its sacredness. Individual worth is likely to be at 
a discount. The man who gets down in a crowd finds it difficult 
to rise. No one sees him ; few care. It is quite as possible to 
neglect the " submerged tenth " in the great university as in the 
great city. Among the thousands of freshmen who enter our col- 
leges and universities every fall, some are wayward, many are 
thoughtless, a few lack confidence, practically all are without exper- 



Io6 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2/ 

ience away from home. The freshman in September differs Httle 
from the high school boy who graduated the preceding June; and 
yet it is quite the custom to treat him in September as a man entirely 
capable of shifting for himself. 

This sink or swim process is to a certain extent necessary and 
valuable discipline, but a little judicious coaching would save some 
from sinking at the start, others at the end of the first semester 
and so on; and it would help the most of them to swim more 
steadily and successfully throughout their course. 

Some colleges and universities are beginning to recognize the 
need of closer supervision in the interest of the individual student, 
especially in the earlier part of the course. For example, Harvard, 
as you know, has successfully maintained for a number of years a 
group system of supervision over freshmen. Last year Amherst 
instituted a similar system. Concerning the Amherst plan, Pro- 
fessor Cowles of the Latin department writes me as follows : 

The system of advisers was established last year, because the 
faculty had been impressed more and more by the mistakes the 
students made in selecting the best course of study for their indi- 
vidual cases, and they did not seem to feel ready to ask the help of 
their teachers. The freshmen class was divided into groups of 15 
men each and each group assigned to a member of the faculty, who 
made individual appointments with each student, just before the 
time he would naturally select his courses for the sophomore year. 
We have not yet had time to learn the wisdom of the move, but we 
found that in every case the student seemed to cordially welcome the 
oooortunity to have a frank and informal conversation with his ad- 
viser about the studies he would like to take, and in veiy many 
cases he quickly saw that he had not been wise in his plans, and was 
glad to change. Sometimes he had failed to look ahead and select 
studies that would permit him in later years to take the courses he 
desired and which possibly needed some science like chemistry to 
prepare the way ; often his course was far too one-sided and narrow, 
etc. So far as I can judge all the teachers approve heartily the plan, 
and we expect to continue it, though thus far it has been applied to 
the present sophomore class only. Whether the advisers continue 
throughout the four years has not yet been determined. 

At the beginning of the present year Syracuse University inaug- 
urated the Harvard system, and Dean Smalley has sent me the 
following brief explanation : 

The statement as it passed the faculty is as follows : The fresh- 
men of this college shall be divided into sections of not more than 15 
each and a member of the faculty have general supervision over each 
section as faculty adviser. The duties of the faculty adviser shalf 
be: I. Promotion of . social life of the students in his section. 



1906] THE HIGH SCHOOL AND THE INDIVIDUAL STUDENT ID/ 

2. General adviser in the scholastic work of the students of his sec- 
tion. 3. Friend of his students. The Dean assigns the sections and 
is requested to give science men to science teachers etc. It has 
worked well at Harvard. We will try it. 

But I am not to forget that the subject of this paper is high school 
organization, and this excursion into college territory is permissible 
only so far as it serves to illustrate and enforce the need of closer 
personal supervision of the individual student in the high school. 
Considering the ages of the students, the change from the grammar 
school to the high school is quite as marked as that from the high 
school to the college. The larger the high school, the truer does 
this become. The boy who has been under the eyes of the same 
teacher five hours a day for the past year or two in the grammar 
school enters the high school, where he is assigned a seat in a stud;^- 
hall or a study room. The principal or some other teacher looks 
after his attendance. He recites to three or four different teachers, 
and he is likely to spend his study hours under the supervision of 
as many more. His course of study is more or less elective. In 
schools where the single session is in vogue, he spends his after- 
noons at home, or elsewhere. In short, at 13 or 14 years of age, 
the high school student becomes a part of what is practically, in its 
arrangement, a university system — and that too at the most critical 
period of his life. The English teacher, the Latin teacher, the his- 
tory teacher, each has a mortgage on him, but nobody owns him as 
a whole. He is studied from every conceivable standpoint by a 
dozen different teachers; but it is nobody's business to collate the 
facts, to study him as an individual, to know what he is doing, and 
to make use of the information gained for his particular direction 
and advantage. Under such a system it is entirely possible for a 
boy to feel — to quote John Smith's w^ard — that he knows no teacher 
and that no teacher knows him ; that there is not one to whom he 
would think of going for direction or counsel. No matter how 
ready and willing teachers may be, the system as it stands throws 
the initiative on the student and that is just where it does not 
belong. This is no doubt the weakest spot in the department sys- 
tem of school organization ; and the larger our high schools become, 
the more we herd young people together in crowds reaching into 
the thousands, the more pronounced is this weakness likely to grow, 
Right here is chance for tremendous loss in what should be the most 
vital and inspiring part of the teacher's mission. 

To those who believe that there is here a serious defect in school 
organization under the department system, I am sure that any 



I08 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2/ 

contribution, however small, in the way of experience in dealing 
with the problem will be welcome. This is my apology for intro- 
ducing at this time some account of the experiment we have been 
trying in the Jamestown High School for the past six years, though 
we begin to feel that it is no longer an experiment, but a genuine 
help to students a,nd teachers alike. 

The plan of personal supervision which we have been developing 
is similar to the college systems already described, but we have 
carried it much further — further perhaps than would be practicable 
in the college or university. Our students are divided into the cus- 
tomary four classes and each class is divided into as many sections 
as we have teachers to assign to that particular class — usually from 
three to four. The duties of the section teacher are principally 
these : ( i ) To advise wdth the student in the selection of his 
studies and to attend to his registration at the beginning of each 
term. (2) To keep a complete record of the student's work, both 
as to Regents credits and local requirements, as he progresses in 
his course from year to year. (3) To meet with his section once a 
month, in order to report to his students their standings, to discuss 
with them their progress and to labor with the delinquents. (4) 
To do as much from day to day as his tact, sympathy and qualities 
of leadership will inspire him to do to make himself a factor in the 
intellectual and moral progress of every student in his section. (5) 
With the other section teachers of the class to assist and guide the 
students in all class functions — both social and educational — through- 
out the course, even including graduation. 

This in brief is an outline of the system. It remains to point out 
some of its results and to conclude with a statement of the prin- 
ciples upon which it rests. • 

While we are discovering new advantages of this plan of organi- 
zation each term, yet some of its benefits may be already definitely 
stated. Take first the direct benefits to the students themselves. 
Under this arrangement the new student finds himself more quickly 
■ under his new surroundings, and toses less time in making up his 
high school work. He understands from the start, no matter to how 
many teachers he recites, that there is one teacher who is under 
special obligations to look after his interests and to whom he is 
particularly responsible, not in Latin or algebra, or history, simply, 
but as an individual student from temi to term and from year to 
year. His course of study is more carefully planned and his work 
more closely watched. Except in those studies where his section 
teacher is also his class teacher, this plan focuses the attention of two 



1906] THE HIGH SCHOOL AND THE INDIVIDUAL STUDENT IO9 

teachers instead of one upon the progress of the student in each 
subject. To merit the approval of his section teacher also proves 
a' strong incentive to good work with the average student. 

But the chief benefit to the student we had to discover by exper- 
ience. When this system of supervision was first instituted six 
years ago, the freshmen were assigned to teachers who taught those 
subjects coming early in the course; and at the end of two years 
they were transferred to those teaching the more advanced subjects. 
By that time the attachment between the class and their especial 
guardians had grown so strong that it required a full year for the 
students and their new section teachers to get into sympathetic and 
effective working relations. It was a case of swapping horses in 
the middle of the stream and it did not work. What it did do 
however was to bring into prominence the chief advantage of the 
whole system. It demonstrated the possibilities for helpful leader- 
ship that lie in placing the same set of teachers in close and sympa- 
thetic relations with a class of young people for four years at the 
most critical and formative period of their lives. Many students 
have been helped, and some have been kept in school and have 
graduated who, under the old conditions, would have grown dis- 
couraged and dropped out. Moreover this system has made the 
social side of high school life less perplexing, and has turned class 
activities and rivalries into legitimate and exceedingly helpful chan- 
nels. 

But there is another advantage of the system which reacts upon 
the entire school — it makes a stronger and more efficient faculty. 
To guide the same group of young people through four years of 
high school life, and to assist in the management of their class 
affairs develops the tact, judgment and leadership of any teacher in 
a marked degree. Moreover it strengthens the teacher by adding 
dignity and authority to his position and by fastening upon him 
definite responsibilities which he might otherwise never recognize 
at all or easily shirk. Again, it makes the teacher more intelligent 
in matters of school organization ; for he must study not only the 
requirements of his own institution, but he must also understand 
the courses and requirements laid down by the State Education- 
Department. It ought to be added that under this plan of organiza- 
tion the new teacher more quickly finds his place and more readily 
gets into touch with the students. Moreover he is thrown into 
immediate and helpful contact with his associate class teachers. 

With reference to the general management of the school, it is not 
too much to say that this system of supervision is of great assistance 



no ■ 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2/ 

to the principal. Through his constant counsel with the section 
teachers he is greatly aided in keeping in touch with the needs and 
difficulties of individual students and with all other matters ouiside 
the classroom. Furthermore by giving teachers more authority and 
power of initiative, the danger is removed of the principal's setting 
up an absolute monarchy. He becomes the chief adviser with the 
power of veto rather than an absolute dictator. 

Let me say in conclusion that the need of organization in the 
interest of the individual student in secondary and higher institu- 
tions of learning — ^and particularly in the public high school — rests 
upon definite and well founded reasons. The department system of 
organization does violence to certain essential principles which 
should govern the relation of teacher and learner. In the first 
place, it fails to put the teacher in a position which requires him to 
exert and develop his powers of leadership, because in matters 
touching the interests of the student outside the classroom it throws 
the initiative where it does not belong — that is, on the student rather 
than on the teacher. In other words it magnifies the mere in- 
structor and dwarfs the Good Samaritan and resourceful leader. 

Again the department system of instruction gives the teacher a 
one-sided conception of the true office of teaching, because it over- 
emphasizes the importance of mere classroom instruction. It bases 
its estimate of a teacher very largely on discipline, methods and 
success in classroom instruction and results on written examina- 
tions. High school teachers should be so trained and high schools 
should be so organized that the teacher will understand that he will 
be judged quite as much by his ability to guide and direct young 
people and to exert a wholesome and uplifting influence over them 
as by his ability as a classroom instructor. 

But there is a more important principle still which is grossly violated 
by the department system of organization. The greatest results — 
moral and spiritual — in character building which have followed the 
efforts of teachers have come from the close association between 
learner and teacher over a considerable period of time. An appeal 
to history would amply justify this statement. The department 
system of instruction in the larger high schools, especially, brings 
the student in contact with the teacher from one to five periods a 
week — sometimes for a term, sometimes for a year, occasionally for 
a longer period — under the rather formal, often unsympathetic, and 
sometimes antagonistic conditions of the classroom. Both the time 
element — such a vital consideration in the formation of character — 



1906] THE HIGH SCHOOL AND THE INDIVIDUAL STUDENT III 

and the element of close personal association are, I repeat, grossly- 
violated by the department system of organization. 

In my judgment John Smith states a real grievance. It ought to 

/be redressed for the benefit of all future Smiths and their kind. 
We need to supplement our department instruction by some plan 
of group supervision in the interest of the individual student, and 
thus give greater efifect to the indisputable law that no system of 
education really hits the mark till it hits the individual. 

Prin. John T. Buchanan, De Witt Clinton High School, New 
York -^ I was for many years principal of a high school in the West 
.and 10 years ago I was made principal of a high school in New 
"York city. In this high school in the West I inherited the Smith 
family. It was a departmental school and a boy coming out of the 
grammar school and going into this school was lost. Nobody knew 
him. The case of every boy and every girl in that school was the 
<:ase that has been depicted to you this morning. I felt on leaving 
that school that something should be done by which we could reach 
the individual. Going into a new field, a field that was not affected 
in any way by academic traditions-, we were able to work out a 
plan, and the plan is practically that which the speaker has depicted 
so well this morning, and every group class consists of a class in 
English. All students are required to take English in the New 
York schools, and the size of the class will depend upon that of 
these section classes that the speaker has spoken of this morning. 
The teacher becomes the class officer and the class officer is respon- 
sible for all the administrative work of that class, and not only 
advises what course of study the child should take, but under a 
system where they furnish everything free, gives out the textbooks, 
communicates with the parents, sees that organizations are formed, 
that officers are elected for the class, and whatever is necessary for 
the proper organization of the school is done by the class officer. 
The program maker keeps in view the class officer. There are more 
teachers usually than there are classes. A school may have 150 
classes and 60 or 70 or 80 teachers, and out of that number there 
is selected the best material from the standpoint of influence over 
the class, and that material makes up the class officers in the school. 
In some schools they call them prefects. Now the program maker 
has that in view and every day in the week there is a study period 
in the presence of the class officer and he takes that as his oppor- 
tunity for this great moral and intellectual uplift of his class. At 
the end of every five weeks cards are filled out by the class teachers 

; and sent to the class officer in order that he may know who will need 



112 44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION [OCTOBER 2/ 

his attention and if he hkes he can send these cards to the parents. 
Afterwards these cards come back and are given to the principal 
and I find that it works very well. The child is not lost, and if 
your building is large enough and your equipment complete enough 
and your teaching force sufficient, the child suffers nothing from 
being in a large school because it is many schools in one building. 
I thought that every principal who had been confronted with this 
experience was using it and I am glad to know that it has worked 
so well in the school from which the gentleman came who spoke to 
us this morning. 

Vice Chancellor McKelway — This silence must be interpreted 
not merely as approbation of what has been heard, but as a unani- 
mous desire and expectation that before we dissolve Commissioner 
Draper miay give to us the best reality or substitute for a fatherly 
benediction of which he is capable. 

Commissioner Draper — Mr Chancellor: I am incapable of a 
benediction ; that is always left to chancellors to pronounce. I think 
we have had a good Convocation. I thimk we all agree that the 
Convocation has been a very good one indeed. For some reason 
we had gotten the habit of not attending Convocation very well, 
doubtless resulting from the fact that it came just at the end of the 
school year when we were all tired, and in exceedingly hot weather 
when we all wanted to go to the woods for a vacation. It was 
quite an experiment to change the time of the Convocation. When 
you attempt to find a new time in the year for holding a State meet- 
ing it is difficult to get a time that all interested are disposed to 
agree to. The present week was first agreed to by representatives 
of practically all the colleges of the State who came together to 
discuss the matter, and they agreed that this would be a better tirne, 
or that we might experiment upon it at least. The colleges have 
been fairly well represented here this week. The schools have been 
very well represented and we have discussed many matters of in- 
terest. 

There has been one thing in this Convocation lacking that seems 
to me desirable, namely we have not had much time for free and 
voluntary and spontaneous discussion, and that has arisen from the 
fact that our sessions have not been very long, a fact that I suppose 
is grateful to all of us in a way, and from the further fact that our 
program has been pretty well filled up. Those who are experi- 
enced in the matter of making programs come to know that it is a 
more difficult task to make one that works out satisfactorily and 
pleasingly than those who are not experienced about it commonly 



1906] CLOSING REMARKS II3 

realize. We have had, however, a very instructive Convocation, 
though possibly I ought not to say so. I may be in the attitude of 
the old lady who went home from prayer meeting saying, " We had 
a good meeting, I took part." But aside from any part that I 
myself have had in the Convocation, I think we have had an in- 
structive meeting, and better than that I think we have had one 
that has drawn us together and led us to look forward to a still 
better Convocation next year. It has been arranged that the State 
Council of Superintendents will meet here next year in the same 
week as the Convocation. That will make a considerably larger 
gathering and I think we all look forward to next year's Convoca- 
tion as one very much better, than the excellent one we have had 
this year. 

Speaking generally, I see no reason to doubt a strong, decided 
progress in the educational activities of this State. Everything is 
looking well and everybody is feeling hopeful. The State educa- 
tional officers, members of the Board of Regents, leading officials in 
the Education Department, are exceedingly grateful to all engaged 
in the active work of the schools for the kindly assistance and 
generous aid and cordial cooperation that they are giving to all of 
us. Matters seem to be going along very smoothly indeed. There 
is no reason Avhy it should not be so and there is every reason why 
we should have a decidedly hopeful outlook and why we should all 
feel that we are in the midst of the exceedingly enjoyable and a 
very promising work of putting the educational activities of this 
State upon the very best footing imaginable. As I have often said, 
Ave have a State with all the advantages of geographical situation, 
of commercial activity, of resources of millions. We have then 
the educational means, for certainly no one can entertain any doubt 
about the readiness of the people in the different localities and 
through their representatives' in the State government to provide 
most amply for educational progress. We have the power and the 
authority to do things such as no other state in this Union pos- 
sesses : or if any other state possesses this authoritA^, it has not 
put it in form for exercise, put it in shape to be used, as Ave have 
in this State. We have all of the arrangements and the resources 
for binding together the educational interests of this State and 
making them conspicuous among all the states of the Union, to 
the end that we shall have great conspicuity of position, education- 
ally. There is no reason why we should not hope to have that so. 
I wish you would all seek to realize that ideal. Our elementary 
schools, our secondary schools, our colleges and universities, our 



114 44'rH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 

library activities and our work in extending educational enthusiasm 
to the utmost limits of the State are all being coordinated and 
brought together, each supporting the rest in a way that is not to 
be found in any other state of the Union; and all that is needed is 
that we shall all realize this and be bound together in oneness of 
purpose and of effort, and we shall surely gain the ends which 
we all so much desire. 

It seems to me that everything is going on very well indeed and 
that the promise is excellent. I am thankful to all who came to 
attend the Convocation and I hope all will come next year. I return 
the appreciative thanks of the Board of Regents as well as of the 
officers of the Department for any help given to this Convocation 
and bespeak a larger share for next year. I hope that as you go 
home you will say to your associates that we had a pleasant and an 
instructive Convocation well worthy of attendance and that we 
count upon a still better one in the coming year. 

Vice Chancellor McKelway — Members of the Convocation: The 
program has been completed. The addresses have been able. The 
debates have been spirited and enlightening. Renewed fellowships 
have been grateful and inspiring. The change in our time of meet- 
ing from summer to autumn has been vindicated. I thank you for 
your courtesy, forbearance, patience, attention and interest. I hope 
you will have a safe journey to your homes, and to your institutions 
of labor and of service, and I further trust that the spirit you have 
caught here will be spread by you among the pupils you teach and 
throughout the communities you represent and uplift. 

The Convocation of 1906 is adjourned. 



LB |\| '07 



INDEX 



Academic council, 6. 

Academic examinations and academic 
funds, paper by Andrew S. Draper, 
with discussion, 34-51. 

Appointments, councils, 6; State Ex- 
aminations Board, 43-44. 

Arnold, Thomas, quoted, 74-75. 

Attendance upon public schools and 
in the colleges, 19. 

Bardeen, C. W., report of committee 
on necrology, 51-55. 

Beecher, Henry Ward, quoted, 10. 

Brown, Elmer Ellsworth, A National 

View of Education, 10-18. 
, Buchanan, John T., on individual su- 
pervision of students, 111-12. 

Butler, Nicholas Murray, Problems of 
Educational Administration, 68-76. 

Catholic school system, 78-86. 
Carnegie, Andrew, gift to New York 

libraries, 78. 
Certificate system of admission to 

college, 20. 
College council, 6. 
Colleges, attendance, 19 ; relation to 

the state, 18-34 '- and universities, 

distinction between, 22-24. 
Commercial program in secondary 
, education, by James J. Sheppard, 



Convocation, change of date, 3, 7 ; of 

IQ06, plan, 3. 
Convocation council, 6. 
Cooper Union, 78. 
Cooperative forces in education, by 

M. J. Lavelle, 76-86. 
Cowles, Professor, quoted, 106. 

Democracy, defined, 13. 

Diplomatic relations, 17. 

Doane, William Croswell, prayer, 7. 

Draper, Andrew S., Academic Exam- 
initions and Academic Funds, 34- 
49 : on state's relation to the col- 
leges, 27-30, 33; remarks, 1 12-14. 



Education, state aid, 8 ; national view 
of, 10-18; cooperative forces in, 76- 
86. 

Education Department, results of uni- 
fication, 8; tabulation of high 
schools by, 21 ; should investigate 
requests for state aid to higher 
institutions, 25 ; relation to colleges, 
28-30 ; academic examinations and 
academic funds, 34-49; outlook, 113. 

Educational administration, problems 
of, 68-76. 

Examinations, academic, 34-51 ; ex- 
aminations board, 42-44. 

Fletcher, Milton J., High School Or- 
ganization and the Individual Stu- 
dent, 102-12. 

Gunnison, W. B., on examinations, 
49-50. 

Hawkins, George K., The Normal 
School, 55-68. 

High school organization and the in- 
dividual student, paper by Milton 
J. Fletcher, with discussion, 102-12. 

High schools, tabulation by Education 
Department, 21. 

Individual student, personal super- 
vision, 102-12. 

Industrial exercises, relation to other 
educational factors, by Charles D. 
Larkins, 94—102. 

Inspection of schools, 20, 39. 

James, William, quoted, 94, 102. 
Jamestown High School, personal 
supervision of students, 108. 

King, Joseph E., on the state and 
education, 33 ; on electives in peda- 
gogy, 33-34. 

Languages, modern, study of, 16. 



ii6 



44TH UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION 



Larkins, Charles D., Relation of In- 
dustrial Exercises to Other Educa- 
tional Factors, 94-102. 

Lavelle, M. J., Cooperative Forces in 
Education, 76-86. 

Librar}' council, 6. 

McKelway, St Clair, address, 7-10 ; 
closing remarks, 114. 

Manual training, see Industrial ex- 
ercises. 

Medical council, 6. 

Merrill, George E., The State and 
its Colleges, 18-27. 

Modern languages, study of, 16. 

National view of education, by Elmer 
Ellsworth Brown, 10-18. 

Necrology, 51-SS; Allen, Joseph A., 
53 ; Anderson, John Jacob, 54 ; 
Atherton, George W., 55 ; Backus, 
Mrs Helen Hiscock, 53 ; Baxter, 
Fred D., 52; Bun-, George M., 52; 
Clark, Oliver D., 53; Covert, Wil- 
liam C, 54; Dowd, Charles F., 51; 
Dwight, William Buck, 53; Ely, 
Achsah M., 52; Fiske, Daniel Wil- 
son, S3; Fuller, George N., 54; Gil- 
bert, John I., 54 ; Greene, David M., 
S3 ; Hardcastle, Joseph, S3 ; Hawley, 
M. L., 53 ; Holbrook, Edwin M., 52 ; 
Hunt, Charles T., 54; Kelley, James 
E., 55; McChesnej^ Ensign,- 53; 
McLean, Charles D., 53 ; Martine, 
Godfrey R., 52 ; Mason, James Weil, 
53 ; Miller, Abraham G., 52 ; Miller, 
Emmett C, 54; Milne, John M., 53; 
Miner, FI. Frank, 54; Moore, 
Franklin, 54; Myers, Julian H., 54; 
Parsons, James Russell, 51 ; Pitcher, 
James, 54; Plank, Charles S., 54; 
Pringle, Joseph Addison, 54; 
Rhodes, Orlo B., 52; Richardson, 
Ella L., 52; Roulston, Robert S., 
S2 ; Ryan, George G., 54 ; Saxton, 
Wilbur F., 52; Shaul, O. E., 52; 
Sherman, Jeanie Rogers, 52; Smith, 
Irving B., 52; Stanislaus, Mother, 
54; Stiles, Charles R., 52'; Tarbell, 



Leon J., 54; Velasko, William, 54; 

Vrooman, William H., 53 ; Webster, 

Harrison E., 52; Weinmann, John 

H., 52; Willson, Marcus, 54. 
New York State Examinations Board, 

42-44. 
Normal school : its mission and its 

handicap, by George K. Hawkins, 

55-68. 

Pedagogy, electives in, 34. 

Problems of educational administra- 
tion, by Nicholas Murray Butler, 
68-76. 

Professional education, state's rela- 
tion to, 9. 

Religious schools, 78-86. 

Schools, attendance, 19. 

Secondary education, commercial pro- 
gram in, 86-94; high school organ- 
ization and the individual student, 
102-12. 

Sessions, summary of, 4-75. 

Sheppard, James J., Commercial Pro- 
gram in Secondary Education, 86- 

94- 
Smalley, Dean, quoted, 106-7. 
State aid, to education, 8; to higher 

institutions of learning, commission 

to investigate, 24, 32.. 
State and its colleges, paper by 

George E. Merrill, with discussion, 

18-34. 
State university, 9, 25, 29, 30. 

Taylor, James M., on colleges, 30-33. 
Technical education, 86-94. 

Unification, results, 8. 

LTniversities and colleges, distinction 

between, 22-24. 
University, state, 9, 25, 29, 30. 

Warren, Henry P., on selection of 

teachers, 49. 
Winne, James, on examinations, 51. 



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